


Living Arrangements

by sinderella0069



Series: Living Arrangements [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Humor, Living Together, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-11-03 11:11:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10966029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinderella0069/pseuds/sinderella0069
Summary: An accident at the barn ends with Peridot moving into the beach house. But while Steven quickly realises he can't live without her, he's not entirely sure he can live with her. This is an older!Steven x Peridot story, you have been warned.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an older!Steven x Peridot story. If older!Steven x Peridot stories are not your thing, I suggest you turn back now, because I will not be all that happy if every single comment I get is a complaint that it's an older!Steven x Peridot story. You have been warned.

"Wow, this is turning out to be a pretty bad storm." Normally the weather wasn't something that Steven paid much attention to, but this storm was the worst he'd seen in a long time. The wind was so strong, the rain hit the windows sideways with a noise that sounded like gravel being thrown at the glass, and the waves ran all the way up to the bottom of the temple fusion statue. Also the electricity was out and even though lightning lit up the sky frequently, it wasn't enough to really read his book comfortably. "Are you _sure_ the house is gonna be OK?" he asked a little anxiously as a particularly large wave ran up the sand.

"It'll be fine," Pearl reassured him. "We helped your father build this house and we built it to last."

"Yeah, it would take like, a earthquakanado to make a dent in this place," Amethyst added.

At that moment Garnet stepped out of the temple door, looking serious, and Amethyst's face fell. "Oh no. It's an earthquakanado, isn't it? I _hate_ when I say something won't happen and you immediately come out and say it's gonna happen." Then she stopped talking and looked thoughtful. "We're not going to get a delivery of free pizzas."

"Yeah, that's not happening," Garnet said firmly. "And neither is an earthquakanado." She adjusted her shades slightly. "There's a corrupted gem trapped in a fissure that's now affecting the local ecosystem. We have to go and deal with it before anything eats the contaminated flora."

"Want me to come along?" Steven asked, turning away from the window. "Maybe my healing powers could fix things?"

"I don't know, your power over plant life might make things worse," Pearl mused.

"Pearl's right, your healing spit is absolutely the last thing we need here." Garnet glanced over at the clock on the microwave. "It's getting late anyway. Why don't you go to sleep and let us deal with it for now, and join us in the morning?"

Maybe it was the power of suggestion, or maybe it was just Garnet's future vision at work, but Steven suddenly realised how tired he was. "All right." He stood up and stretched. "I'll call you in the morning. And I'll keep my cell by my bed so you can call me if you need me sooner."

"Bye, Steven. Sleep well," Pearl said as she stepped onto the warp pad.

"Yeah, and call us if the house falls down," Amethyst joked.

"Which won't happen," Garnet finished. She activated the warp, and the trio vanished.

Now he was alone, the storm suddenly seemed much more ominous. He listened to the waves crashing down below and wasn't entirely reassured that the house wasn't swaying in the wind. Then he shook his fears away and stepped into the bathroom to brush his teeth. If the gems, especially Garnet, were confident that the house was safe, then it was safe. There was probably a greater chance of the Big Donut sign falling down.

He smiled at that thought, imagining the large donut rolling down the street. Then another gust of wind rattled the window frame and he paused, the toothbrush halfway to his mouth as a thought occurred to him. The beach house was going to be fine, but what about the barn? He slowly put the toothbrush back down as he mulled over that thought. The barn was much older than the beach house; Uncle Andy had mentioned the annual family feasts that had taken place there. So it must have weathered plenty of bad storms before. But did that mean it was more or less likely to fall down in this one? And what about the silo and the truck that were now permanently part of the structure? Did they reinforce or weaken it?

He picked up his cell and stared at the screen. Should he call Lapis or Peridot? They were probably fine, they were fully grown gems who had complete control over their powers. In fact, Lapis had probably used her hydrokinesis to force the weather over Beach City and the barn was calm and serene. Although… he would feel a little better if he knew for sure, so he scrolled through his contacts until he reached Lapis, which was when he discovered that the cell network was down. He swore under his breath. He _really_ didn't want to have to go outside in this weather. "They'll be fine," he said aloud. And then, because he hadn't quite managed to convince himself, he said it again. "They'll be fine! I'm sure of it!"

xxx

And at that moment, Lapis and Peridot were, in fact, fine. Lapis, fascinated by the storm, had decided to go out and fly through it. And Peridot, who didn't often have the barn to herself, had taken advantage of the situation and was indulging in several of her favorite things at once. Now she lounged happily in the hammock, dressed in cutoff jeans and a sequined halter top, headphones plugged in as she listened to some old music Greg had recommended, all while writing Camp Pining Hearts fanfiction on her tablet.

'"I know you dropped the key to these handcuffs in the lake so I'd miss my date with Paulette," Percy accused his ex-best friend. "Why don't you just admit it?"

"You think I'd do that?" Pierre said, sadness written all over his face. He turned his face away. "If you must know, I didn't do it so you'd spend less time with her… I did it so you'd spend more time with me," he admitted, shamefaced.'

Peridot stopped typing and reread the last paragraph twice before deciding there was just a little too much repetition of the word 'face'. She erased a few words and typed again. This time it flowed much better and she smiled happily. Now she could begin working on next scene, where Pierre would declare his love.

The hammock swayed gently. Blondie sang in her ears, and Percy and Pierre gave in to their mutual lust and kissed. Everything was quite lovely. The very last thing Peridot expected was for the ceiling of her room to collapse as the truck fell through it.

She dropped her tablet with a scream, and threw her hands up in a valiant attempt to stop it before it crashed into her face. Fortunately, her metal powers didn't let her down and the truck froze in midair. Unfortunately, her powers didn't work on wood, and when the section of ceiling holding the end of the hammock collapsed as well, Peridot found herself unexpectedly tipped out onto the floor. Her concentration broke, and the truck slammed heavily into her chest and she gasped in pain.

Her headphones had been knocked askew, and now she could hear the creaks and crashes as the rest of the barn was battered by the storm. More wood fell, pinning her in place. She felt something in her leg snap and screamed. Then above the howling wind and splintering wood, she heard the ominous sound of grinding metal. _The silo,_ she realized. If that fell on her, would it poof her, or would she be trapped under it until Lapis returned? Neither of those options were particularly appealing, so she concentrated on holding the truck in place with one hand, and with the other one, she gave a mental _shove_ , pushing the silo away from the barn and faintly heard it crash onto the ground outside. It had probably flattened the tractor, she thought gloomily.

Now the immediate danger of being squashed by the silo had passed, she tried to assess the rest of the damage. She could use her powers to move the truck, but there was a wooden beam across her legs and a broken plank of wood was stabbing her in the thigh. Also she was more than a little worried that trying to move the truck would result in even more of the barn falling down on her. Still, her chest hurt and she wanted the pain to stop, so she gave the truck a tentative push. There was an immediate splintering noise and broken wood hit the ground next to her head and she froze, not daring to move any more.

For several minutes she lay there, wondering what to do next, rainwater dripping on her face as she listened to the storm rage outside, flinching every now and then when the barn shifted. But then after a while, she slowly became aware of another sound, a voice just faintly audible over the wind, and her heart leapt with hope. "Hello!" she shouted, ignoring the pain in her chest as she inhaled. "Help me!"

"Hello!?" The voice was louder now. "Lapis? Peridot? Are you in here?"

She sagged with relief, almost losing her hold on the truck as she finally recognized the owner of the voice. "Steven! Over here!"

Wood clattered, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Steven's spiked bubble shield roll up beside her. "Oh my gosh, Peridot!" To his eternal credit, he didn't bother with any stupid questions like 'what happened' or 'are you all right', but instead dismissed the shield and knelt down to give her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Hold on, I'll get you out of here. Just as soon as I work out how," he added under his breath. He stepped back again and tried to think. "I have an idea," he said slowly, and summoned his bubble again. "I'll try and expand my bubble around you and push the debris out of the way. When I do, can you push the truck out of the way?"

"Yes." Peridot nodded at once. "But Steven… there's a piece of wood stuck in my leg. Will you contain it in the bubble too or will it be pushed out?"

"Uh…" Steven bit his lip. "I'll try and push it out," he decided. "It's probably gonna hurt, I'm sorry about that, but I can heal you and it'll be easier for us to move without it."

"OK." She nodded again.

"All right. When I say 'go', push the truck away," he instructed. "Ready, set… GO!"

Peridot gritted her teeth and pushed the truck as hard as she could, sending it flying back out of the wrecked barn. At the same time, Steven expanded his bubble, and everything in its path, except for Peridot herself, was tossed aside. Peridot couldn't help crying out in pain as the broken plank was ripped out of her leg, but Steven was beside her at once with a palm full of spit, which he immediately slapped over the wound. "There," he said in satisfaction. Then he took another, longer look at her and recoiled. "OK… um, that's not enough, is it?"

"No," she said in a wobbly voice, trying not to cry.

"Where else hurts?" he asked, trying to sound calmer than he felt.

"Uh…" Peridot began making a mental list of all her current injuries, and quickly gave up. "Everywhere."

"All right…" Steven thought quickly. Perhaps if he used his spit on her gem, it would heal the rest of her body? It was worth a try, so he leaned over and pressed his lips to the gemstone on her forehead, then sat back hopefully.

Nothing happened.

He groaned with disappointment. It would seem that because her actual gem wasn't damaged, his powers weren't doing anything. To heal her body, he'd need to pretty much dunk her in a bathtub of spit, and he didn't think he had enough- "Oh! I'm stupid!" he exclaimed aloud, slapping his forehead in emphasis. "My mom's fountain!" he explained in response to her blank expression. "I'll take you there!" And so he very carefully picked her up, trying not to cause her any further pain, and took one last look around the barn. "Where's Lapis?" he belatedly asked. "Did she get out OK?"

"She isn't here," Peridot said through clenched teeth. "She went out flying."

Steven glanced around again, half-wondering if he should leave a note for the other gem, but immediately dismissed it as a very silly idea. Besides, Lapis wasn't an idiot, as soon as she saw the state of the barn, she'd go straight to the Temple to get help. "Let's go," he said instead, and began rolling the bubble back outside.

xxx

Fifteen minutes later, they rematerialized inside the beach house. Peridot immediately crossed over to the sofa, dripping magic water onto the floor with each step, and sunk down onto it with a groan. Steven was beside her in an instant. "Are you all right?" he asked anxiously, wondering if perhaps his mother's healing powers weren't as effective on an era 2 gem, but Peridot just smiled wryly.

"Oh, I'm completely healed." She waved a hand in the direction of the warp pad. "I just wish I could say the same about my home and all of my possessions."

"As soon as the storm's stopped, we'll go and check out the damage," Steven promised at once. "I'm sure we can rescue your stuff."

"And the barn?" she asked, turned to face him. "Do you think it can be repaired?"

"Honestly?" Steven shook his head sadly. "I'm no builder, but it didn't look good when I arrived, and I'm pretty sure it looks a lot worse now." Peridot groaned again and cradled her head in her hands and Steven quickly changed the subject. "Peri? Can I ask you something?"

"I suppose so," she muttered.

It wasn't the most encouraging response, but Steven forged ahead anyway. "I don't get it… I saw you get thrown all over the Beta Kindergarten without a scratch, how come you got so badly hurt by the barn falling down?"

Beneath her fingers, Peridot blushed dark green. "Do you promise not to laugh?"

"I promise," Steven said at once.

"Do you recall when Connie gave me that book on human anatomy?" she began.

Steven opened his mouth and then closed it again, suddenly unsure whether he wanted to know the rest of this story, because Connie had given Peridot the book when she'd finally gotten curious about his hybrid status and started asking uncomfortable questions about how exactly how his parents had created him. "…Yes," he said warily.

"Well, it contained detailed diagrams of human internal systems," Peridot continued, dropping her hands from her face as she spoke. "I was particularly intrigued by the digestive system. Many human bonding rituals take place during the mutual consumption of food. There are many television shows dedicated to crafting the perfect foodstuff. And you and Amethyst seem to deeply enjoy it. So it's something I have wished to experience for myself, but my attempts at shapeshifting have been to no avail."

"Oooookay?" Steven replied, wondering what on Earth this had to do with her cuts and bruises.

"So when I last reformed, I made a digestive system," she said. "But the human internal systems are all interlinked and I wasn't sure exactly how much could be safely omitted. So…I included everything."

"Ah." Steven was finally beginning to understand. "Including bones and blood, am I right?"

"It is a decision I am beginning to regret," Peridot admitted. "And I will be making some changes next time I reform. I've definitely decided not to keep the skeleton."

"You make it sound like you keep an actual skeleton just randomly lying around," Steven chuckled.

Peridot couldn't help smiling a little too. Then she sighed deeply. If she _had_ kept an actual skeleton just randomly lying around, it would've certainly been smashed to bits by now. On the bright side though… "It could have been worse," she said aloud. "If Garnet hadn't decided to relocate the bubbled gems into the temple…"

Steven cringed at the thought. "Yeah, that's a point. Ooh, and speaking of Garnet," he began, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. Then his face fell. "Darn. Still no service."

"Where _are_ the gems?" Peridot asked.

"On a mission," Steven replied a little distractedly as he began walking around the little house in the vain hope of finding a spot with cell service. "I think they said a gem got buried? So it's affecting the plant life there."

"Oh." Despite the fact that it was far from the first mission she'd been left out of, Peridot still couldn't help feeling a tiny twinge of hurt that had nothing to do with the barn falling on her. She knew the other Crystal Gems didn't mean anything by it, but it did annoy her when nobody thought to ask her for help, especially when it was a mission where she might actually be of use. And as a kindergarten technician, she definitely had more than a few ideas about how a buried gem could affect the surrounding area. "Do you have any idea where they are?" she asked.

"No idea," Steven admitted. "I was supposed to go to sleep and call them in the morning. But I guess the storm's knocked out the network, so we'll just have to wait." He glanced back down at his phone again, noting the time. Well after midnight. "I really should go to bed now," he muttered, half to himself. "Do you wanna take your clothes off?"

"Excuse me!?" Peridot asked, startled.

A deep blush bloomed on Steven's face as he realized what he'd just said. "I-I meant because you're wet!" he tried to explain. "I mean, your clothes! Are wet!"

"Oh!" She looked down at herself, finally noticing the growing puddle at her feet. "I see."

"There's a laundry hamper in the bathroom, so you can change in there," Steven rapidly continued, gesturing a little wildly towards the doorway. "And we'll get them washed and dried for you."

He waited until Peridot had closed the bathroom door, and then sprinted up the stairs to his room and changed into his pajamas as quickly as possible. That done, he flopped back onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling, idly wondering what the Crystal Gems would have to say about this, but without warning, his exhaustion crashed down upon him and seconds later, he was asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't the most restful sleep Steven had ever experienced. Several times in the night, raised voices brought him almost to the edge of consciousness, but before he could fully wake up, they got quieter again and he drifted off again, his sleep fractured but not fully broken. It took him a long time to properly wake up in the morning, and when he did, he was almost tempted to just roll over and go straight back to sleep for another eight hours. But then he heard Lapis's voice below and belatedly remembered the events of the night before.

"Good morning, Sunshine," Garnet greeted him when he blearily stood up and began making his way towards the stairs.

"Hey." He stretched and rubbed his eyes, hoping that would make him feel a bit more alert. It didn't. "When did you guys get back?"

"Couple of hours ago," Amethyst said. "Lapis called us and said the barn fell down, but we thought we'd wait for you before we go and check it out."

"The phones are working then?" He glanced out of the window, finally noting the beautiful, sunshiney sky outside. "How did the mission go?"

"There's still a lot of clean-up to do," Pearl said, looking rather enthusiastic at the notion. "But we did manage to locate the gem, so things shouldn't get any worse while we deal with this emergency."

Lapis rolled her eyes. " _So_ sorry the destruction of our home has interfered with your schedule," she muttered.

Pearl wisely ignored her. "Why don't you get dressed, and I'll fix you some breakfast?"

"Sure." He got halfway down the stairs before he realized he didn't have a change of clothes with him. With a groan of annoyance, he spun around, grabbed his old clothes off the floor and clean ones out of the dresser, and headed into the bathroom, where he immediately filled the sink with cold water and plunged his face into it. Finally awake, he quickly changed and tossed his dirty clothes and pyjamas into the hamper on top of Peridot's damp clothes, and stepped outside again. Pearl had poured him a bowl of cereal, and hyper-aware that everyone was watching him, waiting to leave, he wolfed it down in double-quick time. "Done!" he announced, pushing the bowl away.

"Right!" Amethyst clapped her hands together. "Let's go check out the damage."

Pearl nodded, and added brightly, "I'm sure it'll all look a lot less worse in daylight."

xxx

As soon as they warped onto the hill overlooking the barn, they knew at once that Pearl was wrong. Amethyst whistled slowly. "Wow. You sure it blew down? It looks like it was blown _up_!"

"Yes, I'm very sure," Peridot said dryly. "I was there."

"Making something explody?" Amethyst persisted.

Peridot puffed up in outrage. "No! I was writing fan- writing. Just writing. Nothing in particular."

Garnet perked up in interest. "The one where they're trapped in a blizzard and there's only one bed or the one where they're handcuffed together?"

"Handcuffs." Peridot looked over at the wreckage of the barn and deflated slightly. "But I left my tablet behind yesterday, so I expect it's been destroyed. I'll have to start all over again."

"It might not be that bad up close," Pearl said a little hopefully. "Yes, I admit it looks bad now," she continued as Lapis made a rude noise behind her. "But it's possible that damage is just superficial."

"Yes, I'm sure it's just superficially collapsed," Lapis said snarkily, but she obediently followed the group down the hill and over to the barn. Then they all stopped and stood in silence for several seconds.

"All right, I admit it," Pearl finally spoke. "It's bad."

"Yeah, I don't think we can fix this," Garnet added, bending down to examine a piece of shattered wood. "It needs to be rebuilt. I'll have to call Greg and get him to call Andy."

"So… plan B?" Amethyst suggested.

Steven looked at her with interest. "We have a plan B?"

Garnet nodded. "First, we rescue as many of Peridot and Lapis's possessions as possible." She tossed the broken wood aside and picked up another piece. "Then we give them their own rooms in the Temple."

Steven's eyes widened. "You can do that!?"

"Well yeah," Amethyst said cheerfully. "I mean, you didn't think it originally had room for me, did you?" She shapeshifted her hands a bit bigger and began tossing broken wood onto Garnet's small pile of debris.

"I hadn't really thought about," he admitted. But now it had been pointed out to him, he had to admit, it was fairly obvious that the Temple was a post-war structure, built by the Crystal Gems themselves, so of course they'd be able to add new rooms if they wanted to. "Why didn't we do that ages ago?" he asked without thinking. Then he immediately wished he hadn't. Nobody had outright said the words 'Lapis and Peridot still aren't really Crystal Gems,' but despite all his attempts to pretend everything was fine, it had been four years and the two groups still tended to stay separate unless Steven himself made the effort to bring them together.

"Well…" Pearl began, a little self-consciously. "There were a number of reasons, obviously in the beginning, we thought Lapis - and Peridot, of course - would prefer their own space, away from us, but also because forming new rooms is a procedure that involves all of the current Temple inhabitants combining their power…"

"And you weren't sure if I'd be able to do it?" Steven finished.

"We never doubted you," Garnet quickly butted in. "But we didn't know if your human side would affect the process."

"OK." Steven picked up the remains of the barn door and then paused. "Wait. If it doesn't work, do we have a plan C?"

"We have a plan C," Garnet said, but she didn't bother explaining what plan C was, so after a few seconds, Steven got back to work.

Meanwhile, Lapis and Peridot had mostly ignored the conversation and were working on opposite sides of the barn, trying to find what was left of their rooms. Lapis had used the lake to form a large hand that she was using to stir through the rubble, while Peridot valiantly struggled to move a beam of wood. Finally Pearl and Steven took pity on her and came to her aid. But as she stepped back to toss the beam aside, Pearl heard something crack under her foot and peered down to see what it was. "Oh, Peridot. I think I've, ah, found your screen."

Peridot's eyes lit up with hope, but her face fell as Pearl handed it over and she saw that the screen was completely smashed in. "I knew it was illogical, but part of me had hoped it would be OK," she murmured.

"I'm sure Greg would be happy to buy you another one," Pearl tried to reassure her. "After all, that one was several years old, and human technology changes so rapidly."

Peridot shook her head. "I can replace it, that's not a problem. It's just…" She trailed off. How could she explain? She didn't want another tablet, she wanted the one Steven and Greg had given her, because Steven had known she missed her technology. "I liked _this_ one."

Steven held out a hand. "Let me see it."

Peridot handed it over and watched with interest as he licked his palm and pressed it against the screen, careful to avoid pressing too hard upon the broken glass. At once, the tablet shimmered and began to repair itself. The casing unbuckled and the glass knitted back together and less than two seconds later, it looked even better than it had the day she'd first received it. "Wow, thanks!" she exclaimed in delight.

"Wait, you can fix inanimate objects too?" Lapis let half the wall crash back to the ground and flew over to join them. "I thought it only worked on gems and people!" Her eyes lit up greedily. "Does that mean you could fix the barn?"

He looked around for a moment, considering it, and then shook his head apologetically. "Well… not really," he admitted. "There's just too much damage, I don't have anywhere near enough spit to lick the barn back together. Sorry."

"What about Rose Quartz's fountain?" Peridot suggested at once.

"That only works on gems," Garnet spoke up before Steven could respond. "Unlike Steven's powers, it doesn't even work on humans."

"And isn't the barn made of wood? As in, trees?" Amethyst added, holding up a splintered board in example. "I mean, sure, he might fix the barn, or on the other hand, he might make a bunch of tree-Stevens instead."

"Sorry," Steven said again as Lapis scowled and picked up the wall again with slightly more noise than was really necessary.

She looked at his forlorn face and sighed. "It's OK, Steven." She forced a tiny smile onto her face. "I know you're helping as much as you can. I'm just gonna miss this place, that's all."

Peridot nodded in agreement. "I'll miss it too. But I must admit, now that I've had some time to think about it, the thought of living in the Temple is appealing. We'll be able to contribute more to the team. And," she added, seeing that Lapis looked unconvinced, "we'll see more of Steven."

"That's true," Lapis admitted, and her smile looked a little more genuine.

They all got back to work until finally, they'd finished. In the place of the ruined barn stood four neat piles; one containing Lapis's books and art supplies, a rather larger one containing Peridot's tools, DVD's and collection of clothes, some shared belongings they hadn't yet decided how to split, and the remaining debris and rubbish. Amethyst then helpfully shapeshifted into a helicopter and flew the two barnmates belongings back to the beach house while everybody else warped back.

"Right," Garnet declared, and clapped her hands together for emphasis. "Are we ready to do this?"

"Yes," Pearl, Steven, Peridot and Lapis answered in unison.

"No," said Amethyst at the exact same time. "What? Just give me a minute to rest," she complained as everyone glared at her. "Peridot's got like, six hundred pairs of shoes. They were heavy!"

"You've got thirty seconds," Garnet compromised.

Everybody watched as Amethyst spent those thirty seconds stretching her limbs out across the room, until she snapped back to her default form and nodded. "I'm ready. Let's do this."

"Question." Steven raised his hand. "How exactly do we do this?"

"I'm glad you asked that." Pearl stepped forward and began projecting a hologram to demonstrate the process. "The four of us - that's you, me, Amethyst and Garnet - will all activate our gems at once, which will open a door directly to the chamber containing the Crystal Heart. Once there, we will all stand in a circle around the Heart, clear our minds and mentally request new access gems for Peridot and Lapis as we project the light from our gems upon the Heart." She smiled proudly down at her hologram, which now showed six figures standing around the Crystal Heart, connected by beams of light.

"Do we get to design our rooms ourselves?" Lapis asked cautiously.

"Oh yeah," Amethyst reassured her. "You don't think Pearl had any input on _my_ room now, do ya?"

Pearl dismissing her hologram and folded her arms. "It'd be far more clean and organized if I did," she grumbled.

"That sounds pretty easy," Steven quickly interjected before they could start properly arguing. "I think I can manage that, let's go."

Garnet stepped forward and the gems on the door belonging to Ruby and Sapphire lit up. Following her lead, Pearl and Amethyst abandoned their fledgling squabble and stepped forward to activate their door gems as well. Then, taking a deep breath, Steven marched forward and concentrated on opening the door to his mother's old room. All five gems glowed brightly, and the door vanished, allowing them to step forward into the literal heart of the Temple.

"Everybody spread out," Garnet commanded. "Form a circle around the Heart. Lapis, Peridot, you too. Make sure your gems are facing it." She watched with satisfaction as the other gems formed a circle. It was slightly uneven, mostly due to the fact that Lapis was forced to turn her back to everyone, but it would do. "Now, light up your gems, and clear your minds."

Steven lifted the hem of his t-shirt and watched the pink beam of light strike the crystalline surface of the Heart. Instead of bouncing off of it, he watched in fascination as the magical gem structure above them absorbed the light of everybody's gems and began to glow softly.

"Steven, concentrate!" Garnet called out.

He blinked slightly, breaking out of his trance, and closed his eyes as he tried to clear his mind. Unfortunately, all that happened was that every time he banished a thought, a new one popped up to replace it. _Concentrate, Steven!_ he told himself sternly. _Lapis and Peridot need your help!_ Images of the broken barn flitted across his mind. He wished he could have done more to help, but he really couldn't have licked it all back together. He hadn't even had enough spit to heal Peridot properly. Then in an instant, he recalled how Connie's eyesight had been healed when she'd shared his drink. _Of course! I should've got her to ingest my spit!_ But before he could even finish asking himself how he'd do that without a carton of juice as a go-between, his brain had already helpfully displayed the answer. In glorious HD Technicolor and Dolby stereo surround sound, he imagined Peridot's lips upon his, her tongue in his mouth, her hands on his skin- _No! What!? No! Bad Steven! Not now! Concentrate!_

It was no good. The scene was burned onto the back of his eyelids now. His eyes snapped open and he blinked a few times, desperately trying to rid himself of the distracting mental image, but it was no good. As soon as he tried closing his eyes again, it was waiting for him. He saw her eyes flutter closed, felt her breath against his lips, heard her sigh… _for goodness sake, snap out of it!_ he screamed internally. _What is **wrong** with you!? Think of something else! Anything else! _ He screwed his eyes up tighter and tried to think of a song. Focusing on something else was bound to chase this particular thought out of his head, right? _Loving you, is easy 'cause you're beautiful,_ he sang silently. _Doo-doo-doodah-dee-dooo…_ And then his brain filled up with the sound of velociraptor screeching.

"Is anything happening?" Lapis's voice cut through the silence and made him jump. "Because I can't actually see anything."

Garnet shook her head. "No, it's not working." She dropped her hands and cricked her neck. "Let's take a quick break and try again."

As the other gems all relaxed and stretched, Steven took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Then when Garnet signaled for them to begin the process again, he was ready. He closed his eyes, breathed slowly and steadily and imagined the beach. The sun shining down… waves crashing gently upon the sand… the sand guardian, guardian of the sand… _Poseidon quivers before him!_

He growled under his breath and shook his head in frustration. What was _wrong_ with his brain today? Why did it insist on filling up with complete nonsense at the worst possible moment? "Rrrrgh!"

"Steven? Are you all right?"

He snapped his eyes open again and blushed as Pearl stared at him in concern. "Sorry! I'm just…" He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as the other gems stared at him. "Having a little trouble clearing my mind. But I'll manage it this time, I promise!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he was doomed. There was no way he could clear his mind now, it had turned against him. Random song lyrics flooded into his head, accompanied by old vines he hadn't seen in years. He gritted his teeth and gave the Crying Breakfast Friends theme song a mental shove, but it was immediately replaced with horrible, mortifying images of that time he'd taken over Lars' body- "Gah! I'm sorry! I can't do it!" he wailed.

"Steven, it's fine," Peridot began, a look of concern on her face.

"Yeah, don't sweat it," Amethyst butted in. "We'll just keep trying, no big."

"No, you don't understand!" He cradled his head in his hands. "I just… _can't._ My brain keeps filling up with stupid stuff and I can't stop it!"

"It's OK, really," Garnet said soothingly. She stepped forward and pulled him into a hug. "I expected something like this to happen. It's not that I think you can't do this," she hastily added as he pulled back in confusion, "I _know_ you can do this. But I also know that if you keep trying to force your mind clear now, it's going to fight back harder against you and you'll be dragged into a losing battle against your thoughts. We'll take a break," she said to the wider group. "Let Steven eat, and then we'll try again."

"Actually…" Lapis stepped forward and shuffled her feet a little nervously. "I've been thinking it over, and…" She took a deep breath. "I wanna move onto plan C. Or at least, my part of plan C," she clarified as everyone turned to look at her.

"What's plan C?" Steven asked warily.

"Well…" Pearl began slowly. "We were rather hoping we wouldn't need to use that one, as it involves a small amount of disruption to your own living arrangements."

Steven's eyes widened slightly. "That sounds ominous."

Amethyst snorted. "Pearl's making a big deal out of nothing." She stepped forward and nudged Pearl aside. "Basically, plan C is just that you move into Rose's room, and Peridot gets the beach house. That's all."

It didn't escape Steven's attention that Lapis's name had not been mentioned in the plan, and he turned to look at her. "What did you mean when you said 'your part of the plan'?" he asked.

Lapis crossed her arms and looked away guiltily. "I'm… not staying."


	3. Chapter 3

"What!?"

The other gems quickly left the room, leaving him alone with Lapis, but quite honestly, he probably wouldn't have noticed if they'd stayed. "What do you mean, you're not staying?" he asked in dismay. "Aren't you happy here? I thought you were happy here!"

Lapis sighed and looked down at her feet for a moment before raising her eyes to look at him. "I have been happy. It's not that, really. It's just…" She paused to think. "Do you remember when I first came to the barn? We spent that night flying around, looking for some place for me to stay, and I told you I'd barely seen any of the Earth and I wanted to. But then… I didn't." She moodily scuffed her feet against the floor. "I've been free for four years now, and that was the first and last time I went anywhere other than Beach City! It's like… I was trapped for so long, I've forgotten _how_ to be free."

"Well…" Steven said tentatively. "I could show you some other places, like where all the warp pads lead. You wouldn't have to go away then."

Lapis shook her head firmly. "No. I appreciate the offer, but it's something I've got to do for myself." She gave him a small smile. "I've actually been considering doing this for a while now. Me and Peridot talked about it, and I've been looking at travel guides and stuff, but I've been putting it off because I was scared. I guess the barn falling down is just the motivation I needed to finally _do_ it."

Steven's shoulders slumped as the fight went out of him. He hated to admit it, but everything she was saying made sense. "You're staying on Earth though, right?" he asked in a small voice.

"Of course!" she exclaimed in surprise. "And I'll call and send postcards, and I'll come back afterwards. And who knows," she added, her smile widening, "maybe a bit more distance from the Crystal Gems will help me get on with them better." She reached over and gave him a gently nudge. "Don't blame yourself for plan B not working. It's not your fault. Every time I closed my eyes to concentrate, all I could think was how much I did _not_ want to live in the same building as Pearl, not after years of living in her head!"

Steven couldn't help laughing at that. The tension between them disappeared, and they began to head out of the Temple. "You should make a travel blog," he suggested as they walked through the door. "And post pictures on it every day."

"Sure. You can help me set it up before I go," she said cheerfully.

In the kitchen, the other gems were waiting for them, and trying very hard to look like they weren't. "Hey, Steven," Amethyst called. "I made some food if you're hungry."

"Thanks." He sat down at the counter and accepted the dish of chilli she pushed towards him.

"All cool?" She asked in a lower tone, sliding onto the seat next to him.

"Yeah." He glanced across the room to where Lapis and Peridot were quietly talking as they searched through Lapis's belongings. "I'm gonna miss her, but I guess I understand why she doesn't wanna stay."

"So you're actually going ahead with this then?" Pearl's disapproving voice broke through the quiet of the room and Steven looked up in surprise. He hadn't expected Pearl, of all people, to be upset about Lapis leaving.

"I am," Lapis said serenely, tossing a guide book into a backpack.

"You could visit majestic sites of gem culture, or exquisite areas of natural beauty, or even interesting and historical human cities," Pearl lamented. "But instead, you have chosen…" Her lip curled in derision. "To visit _places with rude names._ "

Lapis grinned. "Yep. First stop, Bum Bum Island."

Steven's spoon dropped into his bowl of chilli. Beside him, Amethyst started to giggle. "Are you serious!?"

"Uh huh." Her grin grew wider. "I'm going to take a photograph of each road sign when I get there. I'll put them on the travel blog. It'll be _awesome._ "

"Here's that solar powered charger you were looking for," Peridot interrupted, tapping Lapis on the shoulder.

"Whoa, hang on a minute!" Steven finally noticed the packing going on. "You're going now? Like, right now!?"

"No, I am not going _right now_ ," Lapis replied, looking deeply offended. "I'm going when you've finished eating and helped me set up a travel blog. Duh."

Steven opened his mouth to object some more, then a hand fell upon his shoulder, making him pause. "Let her go, Steven," Garnet said softly. "If she lets herself get settled here, she may not get the courage to go through with it again."

A very selfish part of him was ready to keep objecting for exactly that reason, but he knew it wouldn't be fair to Lapis, so he allowed himself a wordless grumble, and resumed eating. By the time he'd finished, he'd began to accept the situation, and after spending half an hour looking at blogging apps while she told him about some of the places she planned to visit, he was almost as excited for her trip as she was. Then, just as the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, they all stepped outside onto the deck and waved goodbye as she flew off across the sea.

"Well," Pearl said once Lapis was nothing more than a dark speck on the horizon, "shall we give the ceremony another try, or leave it for today?"

"Leave it," Garnet said at once. "If Steven and Peridot are happy to give plan C a try, there's no rush."

"I'm happy to give it a try," Steven said quickly, jumping at the opportunity to put off room-making for a while.

Peridot nodded in agreement. "If Steven is happy with the arrangement, I have no objections."

"In that case then, I'm going to go and clean the kitchen." Pearl spun around and began heading back to the house.

Amethyst quickly straightened up. "I'd better go and make sure she doesn't try and throw out the leftovers."

"And I'm going to my room," Garnet stated. She smiled down at the two younger gems who were still staring out across the sea. "I'll see you both tomorrow."

Steven's eyes followed her as she stepped back inside, closing the door gently behind her, and then snapped back to Peridot. Was it his imagination, or did she look a little wistful? He'd been so fixated on how much he was going to miss Lapis that it hadn't really hit him until now that Peridot had lost her roommate too. "Hey," he said softly. "You OK?"

She finally tore her gaze away from the ocean and gave him a small smile. "Yes, I'm fine. I'll miss Lapis, but she has been restless for some time now."

"You weren't tempted to go with her?" he asked, suddenly curious.

Peridot shook her head vehemently. "Absolutely not. I'm a Crystal Gem. I'm staying right here."

Cheered by her response, Steven pulled her into a one-armed hug. "I'm glad to hear it."

"Well…" Peridot blushed and coughed self-consciously. "To be entirely honest, I saw quite enough of Earth when I was on the run. I have no interest in any more aimless wandering of that sort."

Steven had to laugh at that. "That's fair enough." Then he yawned widely. It wasn't particularly late, but his bad night's sleep had finally caught up with him. "I'm gonna head inside, see what kind of bed mom's room can magic up for me." And with that, he turned his back on the ocean and went back inside. His eyes flickered around the interior of the beach house as he idly wondered what he would need to move into the Temple, but that could wait until the morning. For now, he just wanted to sleep.

This time, when he stood in front of the Temple door, only his own gem lit up and the door opened to reveal the pink clouds in his mother's room. His room. He stepped inside and let the door close behind him. "All right room, I need a bed," he said aloud. He thought for a moment, trying to summon up a mental image of exactly what kind of bed he'd like. Did he want a giant four poster bed with drapes? Or a hammock? Or a water bed? He opened his mouth to begin trying to describe what he wanted, but before he could say a word, there was a faint _pop_ and a bed appeared. It was a strange-looking thing, a large and wobbly mattress that seemed to be suspended in mid-air, with drapes at the corners. In fact, he realized, it was as if the room had read his mind and given him the best of all the beds he'd been thinking off. "Neat!" he said happily, and took a step towards it before he realized he was still fully dressed. "Oops. Better go back out and grab some pajamas-"

Almost before he'd finished speaking, there was another _pop_ and a set of neatly folded pajamas materialized in the middle of the bed. Steven's face broke into a wide grin. "All right! I'm liking plan C now," he commented aloud, scrambling out of his clothes. "Plan C _rocks!_ "

The pajamas fit perfectly and he crawled between smooth, cool sheets and settled down on the comfortable bed. The light in the room dimmed. He found the perfect sleeping position at once, without any tossing and turning. The temperature was perfect, not too hot and not too cold, and somehow he knew that in this room, he would have the best night's sleep of his life. He sighed contentedly and closed his eyes.

Immediately, his brain started replaying the little fantasy of kissing Peridot, but this time, he didn't try chasing it away. It would just be a nice, harmless little daydream to lead him into his regular dreams, and he smiled to himself as he imagined moving slowly forward and pressing his lips against hers. Her injuries healed at once (and in his fantasy, they'd been much less bloody and painful to begin with) and in gratitude, she kissed him back. He imagined pulling her closer, feeling her body pressed up against him as her lips parted. He could almost feel her breath on his face-

Wait. He actually _could_ feel something brushing against his face.

His eyes snapped open and he found himself looking into Peridot's bright green eyes. "Thank you for healing me," she murmured, reaching up to stroke his face again.

"Gah!" He recoiled in shock, and promptly fell off the bed. "H-how- what- how-!?"

"Are you all right?" She peered down over the edge of the bed, her eyes wide in concern.

"I- I-" He scooted backwards, and his hand brushed against his discarded jeans and the phone he'd left in the back pocket, and suddenly it hit him. She wasn't real. If he looked at her through the camera right now, there would be nothing there. Just like the room had known what bed he wanted, and what pajamas he'd wanted, it had also read his mind and decided to make his little fantasy a reality.

For a split second, he was almost tempted to just get back into bed and see what happened, but then a far more sensible part of his brain took over. If the room was reading his mind and creating the things he thought about, what would happen when he actually fell asleep? He might have a completely harmless dream about eating a lot of cheese and wake up and throw up, or he might dream that Yellow Diamond had come to Earth to find out why the Cluster hadn't emerged and wake up to find that the room had destroyed all life on Earth.

It really wasn't a risk he was willing to take. In one swift move, he scooped up his clothes and bolted for the door, not daring to look back.

xxx

When Steven had left, Peridot had stayed on the deck for a little longer, gazing thoughtfully at the sea. She hadn't been lying when she told Steven she hadn't been tempted to go with Lapis, but at that moment, she almost wished she had. Not because she particularly wanted to go traipsing across the planet to take photographs of places named Middelfart and Bob's Knob, but because over the past few years, she'd gotten used to having Lapis around. The other gem wasn't exactly sociable and spent more time holed up in her room, reading books than hanging out with Peridot, but she'd always known that if she needed her for any reason, she was close by. And now she was gone, and so was their home.

Still, it didn't do to dwell on what she'd lost. And anyway, it wasn't as if Lapis had been kidnapped or corrupted, she was just travelling and she'd come back when she was done. And while the barn might be gone, their possessions had been saved and now she had a new home here with the rest of the Crystal Gems.

There was an excited squirmy feeling in her stomach at that thought. After that awful time when Steven and his friend had been taken to Homeworld, the Crystal Gems had made a bit more of an effort to involve her and Lapis, especially with anything that might involve Homeworld or the Diamonds, but she knew perfectly well that there were still many other low-stakes missions that she was being left out of. She wasn't sure if it was because they didn't think she _wanted_ to be included or if they didn't think she'd much use with only her metal powers, or if they just didn't think about her and Lapis much at all, but this was her chance to change that.

With that happy thought, she stepped back inside the beach house and looked around her new home.

It was, to be blunt, a bit of a mess. Amethyst had just kind of dumped their things all over the floor, and Lapis's search for the few things she wanted to take with her hadn't improved the situation. A lot of their furniture had been broken, so all of her clothes were heaped in piles on the floor and on the sofa, while Lapis's books were stacked upon every available surface. She knew she really ought to begin tidying up… but quite honestly, she didn't want to. She'd spent the last twenty-four hours dealing with the aftermath of the barn's destruction and all she wanted to do at that moment was grab her tablet, put some music on and go back to writing her fanfiction.

Besides, she reasoned with herself as she grabbed her tablet and began climbing up the steps to Steven's old room, it would make more sense to clear up after Steven had moved his stuff into his mother's old room. She made herself comfortable on Steven's bed, opened her playlist, and scrolled down to the end of her fanfiction and reread the last few lines.

'"You know," Percy admitted breathlessly, "I only asked her out to make you jealous."

Pierre had to laugh at that. "Well, it worked."

They stared into ea'

Of course, that had been when the truck hit. So she wiggled her fingers and prepared to resume typing. But before her fingertips could touch the screen, the Temple door opened and Steven ran out, looking more than a little freaked. And for some reason, he was dressed only in his underpants. "Steven? Are you all right?" she asked. To her surprise, his first response was to hold up his cell phone in her direction.

"Um…" Satisfied that this was the real world again and not an extension of the room, Steven lowered the phone again and self-consciously hugged his bundle of clothing a little tighter as he wondered where to begin. "Yeah, I'm um, I'm OK." He gestured vaguely back at the door, which had now closed behind him. "It's just, I realized it's probably not actually a good idea if I sleep in there after all."

"Oh." Peridot looked blankly down at him. "Why?"

"Well…" He licked his lips, wondering how to explain it. "You know how my mom's room makes stuff out of nothing when I ask it?"

Peridot nodded. She'd never actually been in the room, but Steven had once told her how he'd tried to talk to her in it. "I do remember you mentioning that."

"Well, it seems it's also kinda… reading my mind," he explained awkwardly. "Like, I told it to make me a bed and some pajamas, but I didn't actually describe what kind of bed or pajamas I wanted, but it knew what I wanted anyway. And then…" He trailed off, trying to think of a suitable lie, because there was no way he was going to tell her the truth. "I um, I was about to go to sleep and then… I suddenly thought, what if it makes my dreams come true too? And something bad happened?" He was suddenly reminded of a horror movie Sadie had once told him about. "Like, what if I had a dream where I _died!?_ " Peridot looked suitably horrified by that statement, so he carried in with relish. "I could be dreaming that a corrupted gem had cornered me and was about to bite my head off, and wake up just in time for a _real_ corrupted gem to _really_ bite my head off!"

"Oh!" Peridot gasped. "I see! Of course, you can't possibly sleep in there!" She hastily grabbed her tablet and jumped to her feet. "I'll be out of your way at once!"

"Thanks." He waited as she scurried down the stairs and started clearing a space on the sofa, and quickly zipped up into his room and pulled on his (real) pajamas. "You don't mind if I turn off the light, do you?" he called down.

"No, that's fine," she called back. So long as she could see her screen, she was happy. She curled up in the small space she'd managed to clear and began typing.

She'd typed exactly one word when Steven spoke again. "Peri? I don't mean to be a bother," he said apologetically, "but um, would you mind turning the music down or wear some headphones or something?"

"Sure! Sorry!" She quickly hit 'pause' on the music player and scrambled to her feet again to look for the headphones she knew were… somewhere.

Up in his room, Steven flinched as green light from her gem suddenly lit up the room, but he kept quiet and waited patiently until she finally found her headphones and went back to her spot on the sofa. Now, in peace and darkness and a room that probably wouldn't kill him in his sleep, he finally relaxed and closed his eyes. Then he immediately opened them again. Once again, his brain, clearly determined to see this thing through to the end, had hit 'play' on his little kissing Peridot fantasy, but there was no way he could relax and enjoy it when she was right there in the same room. _Imagine… imagine you're in a TV show. You're the lead character in Under The Knife._

That worked. He pictured himself striding down the hospital corridors after another successful surgery, flicking through a patient chart and barking orders at nurses. "Doctor Universe," one of the nurses called over to him. "The patient's mother is in the waiting room."

"Then I'll head there now and give her the good news," Steven called back. He strode over towards the waiting room and pushed open the door. "Good news, the operation was a complete success," he boasted.

Peridot jumped to her feet and threw herself into his arms. "Oh doctor! How can I ever thank you?" She gazed up at him and licked her lips. "I'll do _anything_ …"

_Noooooooooooooo!_

He grabbed his pillow and held it over his face, trying to muffle his growl of frustration. This was even worse than trying to sleep with Ronaldo in the room. At least he hadn't had any weird daydreams about _him._

Of course, as soon as he thought that, his brain obligingly summoned up a scary mental image of Ronaldo leaning in for a kiss. Steven immediately shot out of bed and ran to the kitchen, almost as if doing so would put some distance between himself and his overactive imagination.

Peridot, who'd managed to write a whole entire sentence, clutched her tablet protectively to her chest as he passed by. "Steven? Is everything all right?" she asked warily.

"Yup! Everything's fine!" he lied, pasting a smile on his face. "I just…" He looked quickly around the kitchen and then grabbed a glass from the sideboard and held it under the tap. "Needed a glass of water!"

Peridot watched him gulp down the water and climb back up the steps to his room before she dared lower her screen again. She reread the single sentence she'd written, and then started typing again, trying to get herself back in the zone.

'They stared into each others eyes, drinking in the sight of one another, before moving in for an'

Steven's bed creaked as he rolled over, and Peridot froze and pulled her screen closer, just in case he happened to roll out of bed, across the floor and peer over the edge of the loft to read what she'd written. Admittedly it was an unlikely scenario, but it _could_ happen. But after three minutes, she accepted that it wasn't going to happen, and began typing again.

'another kiss. Pierre moa'

Steven groaned and rolled over again, and once again, Peridot clutched her tablet to her chest.

Nothing happened.

She reread the last sentence again and finished typing the word. Then she deleted it. Then she typed the exact same word again. And deleted it again.

She couldn't do it. She _couldn't_ write Percy and Pierre making out and heavy petting with Steven in the room. In desperation, she turned up her music to try and drown out the sound of his movement in an attempt to capture the illusion that she was alone, but she couldn't concentrate with the words blaring in her ears, and a few seconds later, she heard Steven calling her name in a loud whisper. "Yes?" she asked cautiously, removing one of the earbuds so she could hear him better.

"I'm really sorry," he hissed apologetically, "but could you turn the music back down again? It's really loud."

"Sorry." She turned the music back down and listened to him toss and turn some more. A thought suddenly occurred to her; perhaps he was finding the presence of another person in the room as distracting as she was? "Steven?" she said in a low voice.

"Yeah?"

"Would you like me to find someplace else to work tonight?"

There was a pause as Steven considered her offer. "You wouldn't mind?"

"Not at all," she reassured him cheerfully, and without waiting for a reply, she jumped to her feet and marched off to the bathroom.

Steven listened to the door click shut, and then finally, silence fell over the room, but it was still a long time before he was able to fully relax and go to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

"Steven. Steven. Steeeeeeven. Psst. Steven."

Steven's eyes felt as if they'd been glued shut. He half-wished he could say the same about his ears, but alas, those were working perfectly and there was no escape from Amethyst's persistent voice. With monumental effort, he forced his eyes open and blinked at the fuzzy purple blur. "Whuusst?" he groaned.

"What are you doing out here?" Amethyst immediately questioned. "I went looking for you in your room." She waved over towards the Temple door as she spoke. "I wanted to see what you'd done with the place, but you weren't there."

"Uuuugh." He briefly contemplated just ignoring her and going back to sleep, but he knew perfectly well that if he did that, she'd probably roll him outside and into the sea. "Gizz'minute. Long story. Just woke up."

"You OK?" she asked with mild interest. "You look like crap."

Steven groaned again and rubbed his eyes. "Didn't sleep all that well."

"Oh, OK. Wanna cup of coffee?"

"Yeah, sure." Resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to get any more sleep right then, he sat up and yawned. "I'll have a quick shower first, then I'll explain."

"No problem." Amethyst straightened up and headed for the stairs. "What kinda coffee do you want?"

Steven pictured the fancy coffee maker his father had brought for them last year. It could make about two hundred different types of coffee and he was far too sleepy to decide which one of them he wanted right now. "Surprise me."

As Amethyst began rummaging through the fancy coffee pods, looking for inspiration, Steven grabbed a change of clothes, dragged himself down the stairs and stepped into the bathroom, where he placed the clean clothes on top of the closed toilet seat, and tossed his pajamas and underpants into the laundry hamper. Then he crossed over to the tub and yanked the shower curtain aside.

Peridot, who'd been lying in the empty bath and obliviously watching Netflix, jumped in surprise and turned to see what had caused the disturbance. As soon as she saw Steven, she squeaked in embarrassment, dropped her tablet and clapped her hands over her eyes.

At the same time, Steven let out a much louder yelp of shock and tried to pull the curtain closed again, but in his flustered state, he only succeeded in pulling the entire thing down with a crash. Peridot flinched at the sound, but didn't dare open her eyes, especially when Steven followed up with a string of curse words.

There was a knock at the door. "You all right in there?" Amethyst called out.

"Yes! Everything's fine!" Steven called back quickly before she could decide to come in and see for herself. "I just… tripped."

"OK. Oh, hey, while you're in there, can you ask Peridot if she wants a cup of coffee too?"

Steven's jaw dropped in disbelief. "What!?"

"I said, can you ask Peridot if she wants a cup of coffee too. Please," Amethyst repeated slowly.

He stared at the door for a moment longer, and then slowly shook his head, carefully grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapped it around his waist before cautiously approaching the tub again. "Um… Peridot?"

"I didn't see anything!" she lied, her hands still covering her burning face. "Is… is it safe to look yet?"

He smiled wryly at that. "Yeah, it's safe. Why are you in here anyway?"

Peridot peeked carefully up at him from between her fingers and then sighed and dropped her hands. "I came in here last night to give you some privacy, remember?"

"Dude! Does she want coffee or not!?"

Amethyst's voice made them both jump. Steven looked inquisitively down at her, and she shook her head in response. "No, she doesn't want coffee," he called back over his shoulder. Turning back to her, he sighed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry. I was tired and it completely slipped my mind."

Peridot gave him a small smile and picked her tablet off the bottom of the tub. "It's fine. Perhaps next time I should lock the door again."

"We'll work something out," Steven promised, holding out a hand to help her climb out.

Once she'd left, he took a long look around the room and finally decided to skip the shower until the curtain could be repaired, and just got dressed instead. When he stepped back out again, Peridot was staring at her tablet, and Amethyst was bouncing up and down in the kitchen. "Here," she said, sliding a cup of coffee towards him. "Banoffee flavor. It's pretty good, I had a couple of cups while I was waiting for you. What took you so long?"

Steven glanced back towards Peridot and then lowered his voice. "Why didn't you warn me she was in there?"

Amethyst looked blankly back at him. "Uh, I didn't think it was a problem? It's not like you haven't used the bathroom with her there before."

"That was different!" he whispered in protest.

She narrowed her eyes skeptically. "How was it different?"

"Well for a start, back then she didn't actually ever see me naked!" he retorted, feeling his face heat up at the memory. Despite what Peridot had claimed, he knew perfectly well she'd seen everything.

"Eh, whatever." Amethyst dismissed the issue with a wave of her hand. "It's not important. What I wanna know, is why weren't you sleeping on a bed of donuts in your room this morning?"

Steven quickly explained his worries about sleeping in a room that could quite literally make his dreams come true. "-So I decided to sleep in my own bed, just in case," he finished.

Amethyst whistled slowly. "Yeah, I see what you mean. So what are you gonna do then, share the house with Peridot? Or should we try the room ceremony thing again?"

Steven glanced over at Peridot, and caught her watching them. She blushed and whipped her gaze back to her tablet, pretending to be fascinated by whatever was on the screen. If it hadn't been for the fact that it was completely blank, it might almost have been convincing. "I guess we can try sharing," he said slowly. "Peridot? What do you think?"

Peridot gave up the pretense that she wasn't eavesdropping and put her tablet aside. "I'm happy to share the house with you if you have no objections," she said cautiously. "After all, it is _your_ house, not mine."

"Nope! It's _our_ house now!" And as he said the words aloud, he felt a small spark of excitement. "We'll be roomies! It'll be great! Although," he added thoughtfully, "you're right, maybe in future, you should lock the bathroom door when you're in there."

Peridot nodded seriously. "Your advice is duly noted. Speaking of which," she continued, jumping to her feet and picking up a bag of tools, "I'm going to go and repair the shower curtain." And with that, she turned and marched back into the bathroom.

Steven watched her go, then turned to find Amethyst staring suspiciously at him. "What?" he asked a little defensively.

"You sure about this?" she questioned. "I seem to recall you having roomies before and it kinda sucked."

"That was different," Steven said once again. "Dad was faking an injury to spend more time with me, and Ronaldo was… Ronaldo. But Peridot's a Crystal Gem, she _should_ be living here. And she's been sharing the barn with Lapis for years, so she knows what it's like."

Amethyst opened her mouth to point out that Lapis and Peridot had their own rooms in the barn, but then stopped herself. "Fair point. I can't say I'm in a hurry to do that ceremony again anyway," she admitted. "I know you were blaming yourself when it didn't work, but I think some of it might have been my fault. Every time Garnet told us to concentrate, I just kept worrying that the Wonder-Nerds were gonna team up to complain about my room."

Steven stared at her incredulously for a moment, and then began to laugh, but before Amethyst could ask what was so funny, the Temple door opened and Garnet and Pearl stepped out. "Good morning, Steven," Garnet greeted him. "How was your night?"

"He thinks Rose's room might kill him in his sleep," Amethyst butted in before Steven could reply. "So he's gonna share the beach house with Peridot."

Pearl looked startled at this statement, but Garnet simply shrugged. "That's a reasonable concern."

"It is?" Pearl shot Steven a look of alarm. "What happened?"

"It was kind of reading my mind," Steven briefly explained. "Which isn't really a problem when I'm awake, but when I'm asleep…"

Pearl shuddered, remembering her own single experience of sleep. "I see."

Garnet tilted her head in the direction of Lapis and Peridot's scattered belongings. "We need to go back to the forest and carry on cleaning up the mess. While we're gone, why don't you and Peridot start tidying up here?"

"OK," Steven said agreeably. He watched the three Crystal Gems step onto the warp pad and vanish just as Peridot walked out of the bathroom.

"Where are they going?" she asked curiously.

"They're cleaning up after that buried gem. Don't worry, now you live here, we'll go on tons of missions together," he added as her face fell in disappointment. "But first, if we're going to live together, we need to deal with this." And he waved his hand at the assorted piles of stuff occupying most of the floor.

Peridot pulled a face, but she had to admit, he had a point. "Most of our furniture was destroyed," she commented, bending over to stir through her clothes. "I don't suppose there's enough space in your dresser for my shirts as well, is there?"

Steven looked around. Amethyst's estimate of six hundred shoes was a bit of an exaggeration, but even so, there were still a lot of clothes. He doubted they'd all fit in his dresser, even if he emptied it completely. "No, I don't think that's gonna work, you need furniture of your own." He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "We should go and talk to my dad."

xxx

Greg was watching TV in the back of the van when Steven and Peridot poked their heads around the open doors. "Oh, hey you two," he greeted cheerfully. "What brings you here today?"

"Maybe I just came to spend some time with my dear old dad," Steven teased.

"Less of the 'old' there, buddy," Greg scolded. He muted the TV and scrambled out of the van. "Anyway, Garnet called me yesterday and told me about the barn. Sorry about that," he added to Peridot. "So I'm guessing you showing up here today isn't a coincidence."

"No, you're right," Steven admitted, and quickly outlined the situation. "So Peridot's going to be staying in the house, but we need some furniture for her stuff."

Greg's eyes lit up. After years of penny pinching and making do, he still found it difficult to justify spending money on himself, but spending money on other people was an entirely different matter. "All right, where do you want to go? Donny's Discount Warehouse? Pottery Barn?" His eyes widened in hope. "IKEA?"

Peridot shrugged a little self-consciously. She'd vaguely heard of those stores, but didn't know enough to make any sort of informed decision. "I don't really mind."

"IKEA it is then," Steven said at once.

An hour later, they entered the blue and yellow building and Peridot's jaw dropped. She didn't know exactly what she'd expected, but it hadn't been _this._ She turned in a slow circle, marveling at the bright and cheerful showroom, the displays that featured coordinated furniture and matching décor.

She wanted it all. She didn't care that she didn't have the money or space for any of it. All she knew was that she _needed_ to redecorate the entire beach house right now with reasonably priced Swedish furniture whose names she couldn't pronounce.

Steven spotted the signs at once. "Shield your eyes!" he cried dramatically, and held his hands up to the sides of her face to act as blinkers. "Whatever you do, don't get distracted!" He stared seriously down at her. " _That's how they get-_ "

"Steven, look!" Greg gleefully held up something that looked like a misshapen ice cube. "Tea light holders!"

"Dad, you don't need tea light holders," Steven said sternly.

"Oh, I know _I_ don't, but you guys might," he said hopefully.

Peridot stepped back out of Steven's hands so that she could actually see, and nodded at once. "I don't know what those are, but we need ten of them."

"No!" Steven reached over and put the tea light holder back on the shelf. "We just need a dresser and a wardrobe and _maybe_ a bookcase. That's it. No tea light holders. Nothing else."

Greg and Peridot both stared at him with wide, imploring eyes. "What if we just got five of them?" Peridot asked.

"They're only thirty-five cents each," Greg added.

Steven closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Two tea light holders," he finally compromised. "No more."

xxx

Several hours later, Steven hauled the last of the boxes of flatpack furniture out of the van and placed it on top of the other six, next to the two large blue bags of assorted stuff. "That it, the rest is all yours," he confirmed.

"Great." Greg slammed the doors shut on the remaining boxes and bags. "Do you need a hand putting any of that stuff together?"

Peridot smirked. "I built a giant robot, I think I can manage to assemble a few pieces of furniture," she bragged.

Greg laughed. "Good point. All right, I'll leave you both to it. Bye."

"Bye," they replied in unison. "And thank you for all the furniture," Peridot added. They watched the van drive off across the sand, and then began toting all their new purchases up the steps and into the beach house, which was when they first began to notice a fatal flaw in their plans. "Um, Steven?" Peridot slowly scanned the interior of the beach house. "Where exactly are we going to put this new furniture?"

"Uh…" He bit his lip. "Maybe over by- no, that's not gonna work. Next to…? No, that's no good either." He thought hard, and then glanced at the heaped piles of stuff. "Maybe we should just build the wardrobe and dresser, and put your clothes away for now. You know, clear the floor at least. Then when it's tidy, we can figure out where they should go."

Peridot nodded with approval. "A logical plan. I like it!"

Music was put on, boxes were opened and tools were gathered, and they chatted and joked to each other as they assembled the furniture, Steven holding the heavier pieces steady as Peridot fixed screws in place. And apart from one small incident where one of the wardrobe doors was put on back to front, all went well and soon they stood proudly in front of the dresser and wardrobe and high-fived. "A job done well, if I do say so," Steven said, a little smugly.

"Agreed." Peridot nodded. "We make a good team."

"We do," Steven agreed. He bent over to pick up some of the clothes on the floor. "Now all we have to do is- eep!"

Peridot couldn't help cackling with laughter as the bra he'd picked up sailed across the room and landed on the stairs. "Perhaps I should put away my clothes myself?" she suggested.

Steven's only response was a strangled squeak. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Um, yeah." He turned away, trying to hide his blush, and his eyes fell upon Lapis's pile of stuff. "Hey, I have an idea. Lapis isn't gonna be using her stuff for a while, why don't we pack it all away and put it in my room, out of the way? It would clear some more space."

"Sure, that's not a bad idea," Peridot said agreeably.

Inspired, Steven pulled his phone out of his pocket and began scrolling through his contacts. "I'll bet my dad still has all the boxes from when he moved house," he explained rapidly. "I'm just gonna- Dad! No, yeah, everything's fine, no problems. I was just wondering, do you still have those boxes from when you moved? You do? Great! Can we have them? Yeah. Yeah, OK, I'll be there soon." He disconnected the call and put the phone away again. "I won't be long, OK?"

"OK," Peridot said, a little distracted as she picked up a pair of pants and began folding them up. "I'll continue with this while you're gone."

For the next twenty minutes, she worked quickly and quietly, placing clothes on hangers and folding shirts and pants, placing aside anything damaged or dirty to be dealt with later, when the warp pad suddenly chimed and the elder three Crystal Gems appeared.

"-And then the seaweed strangled it to death!" Amethyst was saying.

Garnet and Pearl laughed uproariously. "Oh, remember that pirate captain back in, what was it, 1790? The one who had a necklace of gem shards? She used seaweed again then as well, didn't she?" Pearl gasped.

"I really though she was going to let him drown," Garnet said solemnly.

"She should've," Amethyst snorted. "The guy was a creep."

"Not as creepy as the one she caught trying to steal an Emerald from the Burning Room." Pearl shuddered at the memory. "Still, that didn't work out terribly well for him, did it?"

Amethyst cackled with laughter. "Remember how she kicked his butt all the way over to the highway?"

"It was pretty awesome," Garnet said with a grin. "But not as awesome as that time she defeated three corrupted Onyx gems at once."

They were talking about Rose Quartz, Peridot realized. She glanced up at the portrait hanging above the door, at the gem she'd never met. Would Rose have liked her? Would she have liked _Rose_?

"Peridot?"

Pearl's voice made her jump and she tore her gaze away from the portrait, a little guiltily. "Y-yes?" she stammered.

"Where's Steven? I thought he was helping you clean up this mess." Pearl screwed up her nose a little at the clothes still scattered around.

"He's just gone to collect some boxes from Greg," she replied. Then she took a step towards the door. "Actually, I was just about to go outside and see if he was on his way back yet." And with that, she fled before anyone could stop her, taking the steps to the sand two at a time. Then she ducked under the deck so that they wouldn't see her if they stepped outside to look for her.

"Peridot? What are you doing under there?"

Peridot flushed, embarrassed at being caught hiding. "The gems are talking about Rose Quartz," she admitted, stepping back out onto the sand again. "I thought I'd give them some privacy. It's not exactly a conversation I can contribute to."

"Oh, right." Steven nodded slowly. "You never met her either, did you?" He looked up at the beach house thoughtfully, and then sat down on the steps, placing the stack of boxes down on the sand. "I'll wait with you. I don't wanna interrupt them." He smiled a little sadly. "They don't tend to talk much about her when I'm around any more."

"They speak highly of her," Peridot murmured, sitting down next to him. "And it makes me a little uncomfortable because… because I don't think she would've liked me much."

"What!?" Steven sat up straighter and stared at her in surprise. "Why would you think that? She would've _loved_ you! Really," he added when she scoffed in disbelief. "You love the Earth, just like she did."

Peridot wrinkled her nose. "Well yes, I do _now_." She gazed across the sand, debating whether or not to admit the truth. "I guess what I really meant was… I'm not sure if I would've liked _her_." She felt Steven start next to her and immediately wished she'd kept her mouth shut. "I-I mean, I don't know! Maybe I'm just biased because all I ever saw was what she left behind! I never met her! Maybe she really was as great as everybody says-"

"Hey, it's OK!" Steven quickly cut in, seeing that she was getting flustered. "Sometimes _I_ don't know if I like my mom much either," he admitted.

Peridot blinked, stunned into silence. "Really?" she finally asked.

"I know, it's awful of me!" He groaned and pressed his hands against his face. "She's my _mom!_ But for the longest time, I thought I needed to be as great as she was, and it was impossible because she just seemed so flawless. And then it turned out she actually had flaws after all. Big ones. And I started to think maybe she had me so she wouldn't have to deal with any of it." He felt Peridot's fingers gently wrap around his, and he squeezed her hand gratefully. He'd never really been able to tell the gems about his mixed-up feelings about his mother, and it was a relief to finally say it aloud. "Like, sometimes I know there's no way she could've known I'd let Lapis out of the mirror, or that you'd show up, and everything with Homeworld. But then I remember how she left me that tape in Lion's mane. She obviously meant for me to find it, which means she must've meant for me to find Bismuth's gem there too. And I hate that she made me a part of that."

"Well," Peridot said slowly, "you certainly have a logical reason to feel conflicted about your mother."

"What about you then?" Steven shook off his gloomy thoughts and looked down at her. "What did you mean, all you saw was what she left behind?"

"I mean…" She took a deep breath, trying to squash her apprehension. The first and only other time she'd criticized Rose Quartz hadn't ended well at all, and since then, she'd been careful to keep her thoughts to herself. But if Steven trusted her enough to admit his feelings to her, then surely she could do the same? "I know she saved the Earth, and freed Garnet and Pearl, and that's a good thing, but… that was _it_. Nothing changed for the gems on Homeworld. You saw for yourself," she added, staring up at him beseechingly, hoping desperately that he understood what she was trying to say. "The Pearls are still servants, fusions like Garnet still have to hide, and the Earth Amethysts are still mistreated. I know it's the Diamonds fault, not hers, but…" She trailed off miserably. "I'm sorry, I'm phrasing this poorly."

"No, I think I get it." Steven thought back to Lapis, sitting at the top of her tower of water all those years ago. _Your friends, they don't really care about other gems. All they care about is the Earth._ At the time, he hadn't understood what she meant, but now he thought maybe he did. "The rebellion saved the Earth, but it didn't really do anything to help gems. Not even the ones on our side." He thought about Bismuth and her weapon and her plan to destroy the Diamonds. Quite often, he found himself thinking that maybe she was right after all. Maybe that's why his mother had hidden her for him, because she couldn't admit it herself. "I guess Mom did her best, but she still made a lot of mistakes."

"Mmm." Peridot relaxed slightly and leaned against him. "She did get one thing right though. You."

Steven snorted and nudged her with his shoulder, hoping he didn't look as pleased as he felt. "Shameless flatterer."

Peridot laughed and nudged him back. "No, I mean it! You said you thought you had to be like her, but you've done so much on your own! You freed Lapis, you bubbled the Cluster, you made more progress curing corruption that she ever did-"

"I kept Bismuth bubbled though," he pointed out, feeling his mood drop instantly as he said it.

"Well, yes," Peridot admitted. "But the important thing is, Garnet and Pearl know what happened to her, and quite honestly, as her teammates, they're the ones who should be deciding how to deal with that, not you. Anyway, shut up. I wasn't done telling you how great you are."

He couldn't help laughing again. "All right, you can carry on."

"Good." She nodded firmly. "Let's see, where was I? Made progress curing corruption, gave Bismuth and her teammates some closure, brought your friend back to life…" She paused meaningfully. "Oh yes, and unbubbled me to find out why I was scared, and as a consequence, saved all life on Earth."

"Gotta admit, that last one was pretty awesome of me," he teased.

"Extremely awesome," Peridot agreed.

The fell into companionable silence, leaning against each other as they watched the sun sink below the horizon. They were still holding hands, Steven realized, but he made no move to pull away, and neither did she.

But they couldn't sit there forever, so when the last of the suns rays vanished, Steven reluctantly turned to face her. "We should probably go-"

"We should go in-" Peridot began, turning at the same time.

Steven froze upon finding himself face to face with her. She looked up at him with wide, green eyes. Their noses were almost touching, and those lips that had plagued his thoughts and dreams were inches away from his own, just _begging_ to be kissed. He leaned forward-

BANG

"Ow! Who left this pile of junk in the middle of the floor!?"

They sprang apart as Amethyst's string of curses filled the air, completely ruining the mood. Without another word, Peridot leapt to her feet and ran up the stairs to make sure Amethyst hadn't put her foot through her brand new wardrobe or something, and after allowing himself a brief moment to pick up the boxes and swear under his breath, Steven followed her.


	5. Chapter 5

It was only just 9pm, but after two nights of poor sleep, there was only so much coffee could do. Steven's eyelids felt as if they had tiny weights attached and keeping them open was getting to be a real struggle, and the last time he'd yawned, he was convinced he'd almost unhinged his jaw. But he valiantly struggled on, until finally, the last box of Lapis's possessions was packed away. Once he'd moved it into his room in the Temple, he stretched and yawned again. "I'm sorry, I really have to go to sleep now," he said apologetically.

"OK, goodnight, Ste-man." Amethyst ruffled his hair. "Don't let the bed bugs murder you in your sleep."

"Amethyst, that's highly inappropriate," Pearl scolded. Then she gave Steven a quick kiss on the forehead. "Sleep well. We'll see you in the morning."

"Sweet dreams," Garnet added.

As the three elder Crystal Gems walked into the Temple, Peridot picked up her tablet and headphones and started walking towards the bathroom. "I'll just get out of your way then."

"OK. Good night." Steven waited until she'd shut the door before changing into his pajamas, switching off the light and climbing into bed. Then he stared at the ceiling for a moment, deep in thought. He felt a little bad about sending Peridot into the bathroom again. Surely if she was going to live in the house, she should be allowed to spend the nights wherever she liked? Even though she hadn't complained, he was sure she didn't actually like it in there, it had to feel like she was being held prisoner all over again.

But he couldn't sleep with her in the same room. He just _couldn't_ , especially not now, not after what he'd almost done on the steps. And he desperately needed to sleep, because obviously sleep deprivation was affecting his decision-making skills, which had to be why he'd thought trying to kiss her would be a good idea when she'd given him no indication that she liked him that way. He needed to get a good night's sleep before he did something stupid and ruined their friendship.

He rolled over and closed his eyes. Then he opened them again. Was he really sure she didn't like him like that? After all, she hadn't moved away until Amethyst had started yelling. And was it his imagination, or had she actually moved closer? He closed his eyes again and tried to remember. They'd been sitting there, holding hands, the sky a deep purple over the sea. He'd moved forward… and so had she.

Or _had_ she? Was he remembering it wrong? Was he picturing it like that because he so badly wanted it to be true? He honestly had no idea.

 _Stop obsessing over it and just go to sleep,_ he told himself sternly, and sat up and gave his pillow a thump for emphasis. Then he flopped back down and resolutely closed his eyes.

Immediately he became aware that his pillow wasn't supporting his neck properly. He reached up and readjusted it. But now his arms felt weird. He rolled over, trying to find a position that worked, but that just made his legs uncomfortable. And then he found that all the fidgeting had made him too hot, so he kicked his blanket off. Of course, twenty seconds later, he was too cold. He tried pulling it half over him, but that left his toes uncovered and he couldn't be certain that nothing might creep into his room in the night and bite them off.

Actually, he'd never really stopped to think before just how unprotected the house was. They rarely ever bothered locking the door. It really was quite fortunate that nothing had ever attacked him in his sleep. Well. Apart from Lion. Sort of. And Peridot's robonoids. And Peridot. Maybe he should go and check the locks. Although he didn't really want to move now, because we was finally comfortable. Mostly. So long as he continued to ignore the fact that he kinda needed to pee.

Unfortunately, as soon as that thought crossed his mind, it became the one and only thing he could think about. Perhaps he should've stopped at the third toffee nut double shot latte after all. For several minutes, he lay there, hoping that if he ignored the growing discomfort in his lower belly, it would magically go away, but finally he was forced to admit defeat. With a reluctant groan, he stood up and made his way to the bathroom and knocked on the door. "Peridot?"

He heard movement on the other side and stepped back as the lock clicked and the door swung open. "Yes?" Peridot asked politely.

"Can I come in for a minute?" he asked.

"Oh. Sure." She stepped aside and held the door open for him to come inside. Then she sat down on the edge of the tub and stared expectantly at him. "How can I help you?"

"Actually," Steven began awkwardly, "I just need to use the toilet."

"Oh! Of course, sorry!" Peridot blushed and stood back up again and quickly exited the room.

Steven locked the door behind her and peed quickly, trying to be as quiet as possible, knowing she was just on the other side of the door. Afterwards, he flushed and washed his hands before stepping back outside again. "All done."

Peridot smiled and jumped up from the sofa. "Then I'll head back in there and see you in the morning-"

"Wait," Steven interrupted as a thought occurred to him. "Why don't you try sleeping out here tonight?" Maybe he couldn't sleep with Peridot awake and active, but he might be able to do it if she was sleeping as well. And then she wouldn't have to shut herself in the bathroom where she used to be a prisoner and he wouldn't have to kick her out when he actually needed to use the room. It was the perfect solution.

Except Peridot didn't look particularly thrilled by the idea. "I don't really… enjoy sleeping," she said hesitantly.

Steven considered that for a moment. "You've tried it then?"

"A couple of times," she admitted. "Lapis is quite fond of sleep, and I wanted to see what the appeal was, so I attempted it myself on several occasions." She frowned and turned away. "I didn't find it… pleasant."

"Why, what was the problem?" He remembered Pearl's first and only attempt at sleep. "Did you have a weird dream? You know they're not real, right? They're just mixed-up movies in your head."

Peridot shook her head. "It wasn't _weird_ , it was…" She paused for thought. "There are some things I try not to think about. But when I was asleep, I couldn't control my thoughts any more."

Steven sat up a little straighter. "Wait, did you have a nightmare?"

"I suppose that would be the technical name for it, yes," she said dryly, although she didn't think the word adequately described the sickening sense of horror she'd felt when Yellow Diamond had suddenly appeared in her dreams, lead there by a hidden signal in the limb enhancers she'd found and repaired. She'd thanked Peridot for her assistance, and the Crystal Gems had turned on her. She'd woken up in a cold sweat, tears streaming down her face, just as Steven himself was about to stab her with his mother's sword. After that, she'd never tried sleeping again. "It's not an experience I care to repeat."

"But I can help you!" Steven exclaimed. "You know Kiki Pizza? She used to have nightmares all the time, but I was able to use my powers to enter her dreams and make them better. I could do that for you too!"

Peridot's first instinct was to refuse, but she found herself hesitating. "How exactly did that work?"

"I'd just… go to sleep at night and think about how she needed my help, then I'd be in her dream," Steven explained. "Jenny was asking her to take over a lot of her work and it was overwhelming her and stressing her out and she kept dreaming that she was drowning in cheese. So every night, I'd come along and fight the cheese monsters for her. Of course," he admitted, "it didn't permanently stop the dreams. In the end, she figured out she had to talk to Jenny about how she was taking advantage of her. But if you want, we can try it and see if it helps?"

"Well…" She still wasn't completely happy with the idea of going sleep again, but Steven looked so hopeful that she didn't want to let him down. And it really was rather boring in the bathroom. "All right," she finally decided. "Let's give it a try." She cast a quick look around the house. "Where should I sleep?"

Steven opened his mouth to suggest he take the sofa, but somehow, the signals from his brain got scrambled on the way down and what came out instead was, "we can share the bed. It's big enough."

Peridot blinked in surprise. Sure, she was an alien from outer space, but she'd been living on Earth for a few years now and she was pretty certain that what Steven had just suggested wasn't quite appropriate. "Share the bed?" she repeated warily, just in case she'd imagined hearing it.

"Um, yeah." He smiled nervously. "Like I said, it's big enough."

The size of the bed wasn't exactly what Peridot had been concerned about, but if Steven didn't think there was a problem, she wasn't going to argue with him. "Very well," she said instead, and began rummaging through her dresser. "I believe I own a pair of pajamas."

"OK. I'm just going to check the door." He walked over and clicked the lock into place, then climbed the steps back up to his room and got back into bed, feeling almost queasy with nerves. There was an entire swarm of butterflies in his stomach, and for a brief moment, he seriously considered offering to take the sofa after all, but then she suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs, dressed in a pair of drawstring shorts and a tiny vest top, and all his self-control dribbled away. "You um, you look nice," he croaked.

"Oh. Thank you." She smiled a little self-consciously and tried to discreetly pull the hem of the shorts down a little further. "They're acceptable then? I-I really don't own any others. Maybe I should put a t-shirt on-"

"No, no, they're fine!" he said hastily, and patted the empty space next to him. "Come and lay down."

"Um, OK." She slid between the blankets and rolled onto her side to face him. "So… I just go to sleep? And you'll be there?"

"Uh, yeah." He felt her knee brush against his leg and wriggled back slightly, hoping he wasn't being too obvious. "I'll help you deal with any nightmares, then I'll go back to my own dream." Then he smiled shyly. "Or if you want, I can hang around and we can dream something fun."

"We could go to Camp Pining Hearts!" Peridot suggested at once.

"Yeah!" His smile widened. "And you could punch Paulette in the face!"

Peridot laughed. "I like the sound of that." Then she smiled softly. "Good night, Steven."

"'Night, Peridot."

Peridot closed her eyes and was asleep at once. For several seconds, Steven could only stare at her in envy. How was it that gems, who had no need to sleep, could _do_ it so easily? It really wasn't fair. But of course, he reminded himself, it wasn't really _that_ easy, which was why he was supposed to be joining Peridot in her dreams instead of wasting time being a creeper and staring at her. "Go to sleep, Steven," he muttered to himself, and rolled over so his back was to her, and closed his eyes. Which was when he realized he wasn't even remotely sleepy any more. The caffeine from the four toffee nut double shot lattes had finally kicked in.

xxx

Peridot was standing on the hill, looking out over Beach City and the distant Temple fusion statue. She turned around and there was the barn. It hadn't fallen down after all, it was exactly as it had looked before the storm. She stepped inside and looked around. The door to Lapis's room was closed, and somehow she knew Lapis wasn't in there. She had the barn to herself. She considered putting on some clothes, climbing into the hammock and doing some writing, but then she remembered that Steven was supposed to be joining her.

Where was he?

She stepped back outside again, but she couldn't see any sign of him. Then she glanced up at the truck. Perhaps she'd be able to see more from a higher vantage point? She couldn't find the garbage can lid, so she went back into the barn once again, walked over to the ladder and put a foot on the bottom rung.

Before she could move any further, something burst out of the ground and grabbed her foot. She screamed and kicked out, sending it flying across the barn, where it crashed into the wall of Lapis's room and fell to the floor. It lay motionless for a moment, and then twitched a few times, before starting to crawl back towards her.

It was a gem mutant, she realized, frozen in shock. One of the prototypes that had been buried with the Cluster-

Somehow, in the short time it had taken for that thought to cross her mind, it had managed to make its way back over to her. A disembodied hand touched her toes and she screamed again and lunged for the ladder.

It was as if her scream was the signal they'd been waiting for. The moment her fingers wrapped around the rung, the ground beneath her exploded as dozens of fragmented gem bodies broke the surface. She could feel the rage and hatred radiating from them, and she knew they blamed her for what had been done to them. If they caught her, they would tear her form apart and shatter her gem and make her one of them too.

She scrambled higher up the ladder, trying to get out of reach, but before she could get more than half-way up, her ankle was seized in a bone-crushing grip and she almost fell back down. She hung on grimly, trying to pull herself free, but her hands were slippery with sweat and to her horror, she felt herself losing her grip. "Steven! Help me!"

Nothing happened. He didn't magically come to her rescue. She was going to die here, all alone. Once again, she tried to pull herself free, but more hands reached up to pull at her legs and her fingers slipped off the rungs. For a moment, she seemed to hang in the air… and then she fell.

She was swarmed at once. Hands pulled at her hair and scratched her face and tore her clothes. She fought back as best she could, biting the fingers that came near her mouth and hitting and kicking everything she could reach, but it was no use. She was completely overwhelmed. And then she felt them touching her gem. "No! It wasn't me!" she screamed in terror. The pressure on her gem increased. "IT WASN'T ME!"

"Peridot!"

Steven leapt towards her, throwing up his bubble shield as he did so. The gem mutants were pushed away and Peridot yelped as he fell on top of her. "Steven!"

"Sorry, sorry!" He tried to stand up, but the momentum sent them bouncing across the barn floor in a tangle of arms and legs. "Ack! Sorry! I'll just- sorry!" He flung his arms out and pink spikes popped out the bubble and lodged into the ground. "Sorry," he said again as the bubble came to a stop. "I came as fast as I could-"

Peridot burst into tears of relief. "I th-thought you weren't coming!"

"I'm _so_ so sorry." He pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back. "I couldn't fall asleep, I almost woke you up instead, but then… I was here." He glanced over her shoulder at the pink-tinted hands crawling their way and tried to repress a shudder. "I'm sorry," he said again. "I should've been here sooner."

Peridot pushed him away gently, wiped her eyes and gave him a watery smile. "It's OK. You're here now."

"Yeah." He managed a small smile in return before risking another glance at the mutants. They were closer now, and he tried to figure out how he was going to deal with them. "I'm gonna drop the bubble in a second," he said finally. "Don't worry," he quickly added as she flinched. "I'm going to pick you up. Just hold on to me, I'll jump and get us up to the platform."

"Um, OK." She nibbled her lip a little in apprehension, but allowed herself to be picked up, where she immediately looped her arms around his neck. "I'm ready."

Steven nodded grimly. Hands were now pressing against the bubble, seemingly oblivious to the spikes and he was pretty sure they only had seconds left before the gem mutants pulled it apart. He took a deep breath and popped the bubble. The mutants fell back and in the same moment, he leapt as high as he could, landing squarely in the middle of the upper level. Then he gently placed her back on the ground. "We should be safe up here for a minute, I'm just gonna look over the edge and try and figure out what to do next."

Peridot opened her mouth to reply, but before she could speak, the platform caved in beneath her and she fell through the air, screaming. The gem mutants reached out for her. They had no faces, but somehow, she knew they were smiling.

xxx

Steven sat bolt upright, gasping for breath, cold sweat soaking his pajamas. "Peridot!" He turned to shake her awake, but stopped when he saw that her eyes were already open. Of course, he realized, that was why he'd been thrown out of the dream so abruptly. "You OK?" he asked cautiously.

"Um." She quickly wiped her damp cheeks and blinked the last of the tears away. "Yeah."

"Do… do you wanna talk about it?"

She let out a small snort. "Not particularly, no."

"Are you sure? I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to," he quickly added, "but it might help."

Peridot bit her lip in thought. "I don't know…"

"Well, at least have some hot chocolate," he cut in, and stood up, forcing an encouraging smile on his face. "Chocolate's supposed to be really good for shock, that's why they eat it after Dementor attacks in Harry Potter."

"That sounds fake, but OK." She followed Steven down the stairs into the kitchen and sat down and watched as he quickly worked, warming up milk and stirring in the powder before finishing off by throwing in a handful of tiny marshmallows. She took a small sip and was surprised to find that she actually did feel a little better.

"So." Steven took a sip of his own drink and then put it back down on the corner. "Gem mutants, huh? What was _that_ all about?"

Peridot sighed and stared down at her mug of hot chocolate. "It's not all that difficult to figure out, is it? I was sent here to observe the Cluster. I feel guilty about them."

"But it's not your fault!" He reached out and grabbed her hands. "I know you were sent to check on them, but you didn't do that to them, you weren't even around for the war!"

"I know, but…" She sighed and pulled her hands free. Should she tell him? He hadn't been angry earlier when they'd been talking about Rose. And he'd seen her dream. Maybe he was right, maybe it would help to finally tell the truth. "I haven't… been entirely honest with you."

Steven frowned in confusion. "What?" Then his eyes widened. "You _were_ around!?"

"What!? No!" She laughed in surprise and shook her head. "No, nooo! No, that's not what I meant! I mean…" The laughter faded and she wrapped her hands around her mug, embracing the warmth. "I let you all think I was just a standard Peridot technician, randomly picked to come here."

"You're not?" Steven said blankly.

Peridot shook her head. "Gems are made for a specific purpose. My purpose was always to come here and check on the Cluster. And the prototypes." Seeing that Steven still didn't understand, she elaborated. "The standard kindergarten training isn't enough to understand the data I was sent to collect. I was given advanced training so that I could take my findings back to Homeworld and um…" She swallowed hard and stared at the melting marshmallows in her mug.

"They wanted you to make more of them, didn't they?" Steven said softly.

Peridot nodded, feeling shame wash over her. "Usually shattered gems are recycled and used to make new ones," she explained in a low tone. "But hundreds of gem shards are needed to make one new gem. It's an inefficient and wasteful process, especially when the shards are from an era 1 gem. Era 2 gems are inferior-"

"You're not inferior!" Steven said sharply.

"That's very kind of you to say so, Steven, but it's an objective fact." She held up a hand for silence as he opened his mouth to protest. "I may have metal powers, but they're nowhere near as powerful as say, Lapis's water powers. I can't shapeshift, I can't summon a gem weapon, I probably can't fuse. I don't have super strength, I don't have super speed and I can't do those high jumps you and the other gems can do. Other era 2 gem types may have slightly different strengths and flaws depending on their role, but we are all substandard and Homeworld prefer to use era 1 gems whenever possible. So when one is shattered, it's considered a great loss." She stopped talking and lifted her mug to her lips.

Steven frowned. What she said made a certain amount of sense, but that didn't mean he had to like it. But before he could try and reassure her, she lowered the mug and started talking again. "So far, Homeworld hasn't tried anything like the fusion experiments anywhere else, just here on Earth, so when they calculated that they were close to emerging, I was sent to collect the data before the planet was destroyed. Upon returning to Homeworld, my job would've been to recreate the most successful experiments and to ultimately find a way to make functional gems out of era 1 gem shards." She raised her eyes to meet his. "That's why I feel guilty. Maybe I'm not responsible for the fusion experiments here, but I was created to make more of them, and I would've happily done so if I hadn't been captured."

"Peridot…" Steven sighed and put his mug down. "We've all done stuff we're not proud of. Garnet used to be on Homeworld's side too, remember? And- and Lapis didn't tell us why she was really on Earth until a couple of months ago. And OK, if things were different, you would've gone back to Homeworld and experimented on gem shards. But you _didn't._ You stayed here and tried to negotiate with Yellow Diamond and you helped me stop the Cluster. You're feeling guilty over something you didn't even do!"

"But-" Peridot began.

"No buts." Steven took her hands again, and this time, she didn't pull away. "I know what that's like, for the longest time, I blamed myself for Pink Diamond being shattered. And Amethyst, she blamed herself for the war and Kindergarten, remember? Maybe you weren't made for the best of reasons, but that doesn't matter! It's what you _do_ with your life that matters! You shouldn't let it get to you, you're so much better than what they made you for!"

Peridot stared at him for a moment, and then finally allowed herself a small smile. There was a warm glow in her chest and she was surprised to find that she felt a lot better after his words. "Thank you. You were right, this did help."

"No problem." He grinned, and with some reluctance, let go of her hands and drained the last of his chocolate. Then he yawned and stretched. "I'm guessing I probably can't tempt you back into bed though?"

Peridot laughed. "No, I don't think I'm quite ready for that again. I'll be going back to the bathroom." She finished her own drink and stood up to place it by the sink. Then she turned around and impulsively hugged him. "Good night, Steven."

"Good night, Peridot." He watched her disappear back into the bathroom, and then went back to bed, replaying every moment of that hug until he finally fell asleep again.


	6. Chapter 6

"Steven. Time to wake up. Steeee-ven. Steven."

Steven tried to ignore the voice, but then somebody started shaking him. With a groan, he moved away and tried to force his eyelids open. "Whuh?"

"Steven, wakey-wakey."

He blinked a few times until finally, the blurry figure of Pearl appeared before him. "Ugh… g'me ano' half hour…"

"You said that half an hour ago," Pearl said primly.

"Did I?" He screwed his eyes shut and opened them again.

"And half an hour before that." She perched daintily on the edge of his bed. "It's half past ten now, you really should get up now, or you won't be able to sleep tonight."

He groaned loudly, but he had to admit she had a point. "All right, I'm up now."

"Excellent!" she trilled, and hopped back up onto her feet. "I'll make you some breakfast."

"Thank you." He blinked a few more times, and then reluctantly sat up and followed her down the stairs.

"So, why are you so tired? Didn't you sleep well?" Pearl asked as she began measuring out the ingredients for pancake batter.

"Not really," Steven admitted with a yawn.

"Is it something to do with Peridot?"

Pearl had turned to switch on the stove as she spoke and missed the deep blush that suddenly appeared on his face. "Wh-what?" he stammered. "No, why would you think that?"

"Well, I know I don't exactly have a lot of experience with sleep," Pearl said, stating the obvious. "But I do remember how uncomfortable you got when you found out I liked to watch you while you were sleeping, so I would imagine that having somebody else awake in the room all the time must be difficult to adjust to."

Steven relaxed again. "Oh, right. Actually, it was a problem, but then she offered to spend the night in the bathroom. Mostly I just had trouble falling asleep." And of course, as he'd found out a few years earlier, spending the night in another person's dreams wasn't all that restful either.

"Perhaps you should have an early night tonight then," Pearl suggested, and slid a stack of pancakes his way.

"Mmm." He wondered if 'immediately after breakfast' was perhaps a little too early and reluctantly concluded that it probably was.

"But today," Pearl continued, waving over at the living room, "I would really appreciate it if you and Peridot could finish tidying up in here."

He looked in the direction she was indicating and pulled a face. Even though Peridot had put away all her clothes and Lapis's belongings had all been removed, the new furniture they'd put together was still just standing haphazardly in the middle of the room, surrounded by boxes of other furniture they hadn't got around to building yet, and a lot of other miscellaneous clutter, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that there really wasn't anywhere to put it. "Perhaps we should give that room ceremony another try after all," he said unenthusiastically.

"Oh. Yes. Well. I suppose."

He turned back around to see Pearl's face screwed up in dismay and was suddenly suspicious. "Wait, don't tell me _you_ couldn't concentrate as well!?"

Pearl blushed and ducked her head. "I'm sorry! It's just, when Amethyst mentioned all her shoes, I couldn't stop imagining her clothes strewn all over the Temple! Not to mention Lapis Lazuli with access to my water fountains!"

Steven laughed in disbelief. " _Seriously!?_ " He shook his head. "No, it's not going to work, not if me, you _and_ Amethyst couldn't do it."

"Well, in that case…" Pearl looked at the living room again. "I may have an idea. If you're not going to use your room yourself, why don't you move Peridot's furniture in there?"

"I dunno, that sounds like it might be inconvenient." Then again, he realized, keeping Peridot in the bathroom was pretty inconvenient too. In fact, he should probably go and let her know she could come out now. And with that thought, he jumped to his feet and pushed his empty plate away. "'Scuse me."

On the other side of the door, Peridot heard footsteps approaching and moved away from the door, rearranging her features into a neutral expression as she grabbed her headphones and tablet. When Steven knocked, she unlocked the door and stepped outside with a bland smile. "Good morning. I trust you slept better?"

"Uh…" Steven hesitated. "Sort of. No nightmares though," he added cheerfully. "Listen, Pearl was just saying, why don't we move your furniture and stuff into my room in the Temple?"

"Because I can't get into your room in the Temple?" Peridot said dryly, plugging her tablet in to charge.

"True," Steven admitted. "But I can let you in whenever you need to go in there."

"And it would only be temporary, of course," Pearl butted in brightly.

Peridot considered that for a moment, and then nodded slowly. "Of course. Very well then, let's do that."

"Great!" Steven ran up to his room and grabbed some clean clothes. "I'm just going to shower and change, then I'll give you a hand."

The bathroom door closed behind him, and Peridot found herself alone with Pearl. An awkward silence fell between them. "I'll just…" Peridot looked around and grabbed one of the now-empty large blue IKEA bags. "Gather up some of my things."

"Would you like some help?" Pearl offered, and picked up the tea light holders from the kitchen counter before Peridot could reply. "Here. Oh, and this is… cute." She picked up a shelf shaped like a small house and curiously turned it over in her hands.

"That's Steven's," Peridot said flatly. Truthfully, the little shelf had been something they'd mutually agreed to purchase, but she rather suspected that Pearl would find a way to tidy it away if she found out Peridot had any claim to it. "And so are these," she added, putting the tea light holders back on the counter.

"Oh. Sorry." Pearl put the shelf back down and looked around to something else to tidy away. Her gaze fell upon Peridot's open toolbox and the tools sitting upon the dresser, and she took a step towards them. "I'll just put those away for you-"

Peridot quickly moved to bar her way. "No, I need those!"

Pearl frowned. "Now?"

"Yes, now!" Peridot snapped.

Pearl sighed and stepped back. She wasn't always very good at gauging other people's feelings, but even she could tell that despite agreeing to it, Peridot wasn't entirely happy about moving her stuff into Rose's room. "It really _is_ just temporary," she said gently. "Once the barn is rebuilt-"

"What?" Peridot looked blankly at the other gem for a moment, then her eyes widened in dismay. Pearl hadn't meant it would be temporary because they'd try to overcome their difficulties with the ceremony and make her a room in the Temple, it was because they were going to send her back to the barn as soon as they could.

"I-I just assumed-" Pearl stammered, realizing her error at once.

"Yes, well, you assumed incorrectly." She began throwing things into the bag again, with slightly more force than was really necessary, and Pearl winced.

"I'm sorry, I just thought you were happy in the barn, but if you don't want to go back there, we're not going to force you to leave." Pearl spun on her heel and began walking back towards the Temple door. "I'll go and talk to Garnet."

The door closed behind her and Peridot's shoulders slumped. She didn't want the Crystal Gems to begrudgingly let her stay out of pity, she wanted them to _want_ her around. Then she spotted her toolbox again and straightened up. Maybe they'd change their minds when they saw how useful she could be.

A few minutes later, Steven stepped out of the bathroom and smiled at her. "Ready?"

Peridot nodded and picked up the bag, straining slightly under its weight while Steven picked up the dresser with ease and carried it over to the Temple door. Then he paused, suddenly nervous. What would happen when he stepped inside with Peridot close behind? Would the room behave itself, or would he suddenly find himself surrounded by more Peridots in tiny cheerleader outfits or something? And of course, now that mental image was in his head-

"Steven? Is something wrong?"

Steven blinked and quickly shook his head to dismiss the intrusive thoughts. "Nope! Everything's fine! Although, that bag looks kinda heavy, do you want me to take it?" He reached out before she could reply and grabbed it from her. "Hey, I don't suppose you could make me a cup of coffee while I move this stuff?"

"Sure."

To his relief, she turned and began fiddling with the coffee maker, and while her attention was elsewhere, he opened the door and stepped inside, placing the bag down next to Lapis's boxed belongings. Then moving as quickly as possible, he brought in the dresser, wardrobe, and other boxed furniture. No phantom Peridots popped up to distract him, and he gave himself a mental pat on the back in reward for a job well done. "All done," he said proudly.

"Wow, thanks." She handed him a steaming cup of coffee. "Mind if I take a look?"

"Uh… sure." He opened the door for her and stood back so that she could pass, making sure he didn't actually step inside himself.

Peridot examined the room critically. She would've liked some walls to put the wardrobe and dresser against, as they looked a bit odd just sat in the middle of the clouds. And they were a bit too close to the stacks of boxes that made the whole thing look rather untidy. She attempted to drag one of the boxes a little further away, but it was surprisingly heavy and refused to budge. "Steven? May I request your assistance here?"

Steven, who'd just noticed an update to Lapis's blog on his phone, froze. "Uhhhh…" He cleared his throat and smiled nervously. "Um, sure. What do you need me to do?"

"Could you move the boxes over here?" She pointed to an empty spot a meter away.

"No problem." He didn't move. "Um, could you um, maybe…" He trailed off. There was no way to ask her to step outside without looking even weirder than he already did, so he took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Nothing happened. The room seemed to be aware that what he wanted at that moment, more than anything else in the world, was to not be humiliated in front of Peridot. He relaxed slightly, put his phone down on the dresser and moved the boxes to where she indicated. "How's that?"

"Much better." Peridot nodded with approval. "And perhaps you could move those ones over here? …Thank you very much."

"No problem," Steven said again. "Do you need me for anything else?"

Peridot shook her head and smiled slightly. "No, I think I'm going to put some clothes on now. I can do that by myself."

"Right!" He moved quickly towards the door. "I'll uh, I'll just let you get on with that, and I'm…" An idea popped into his head. "I'm gonna finish my coffee and go visit my dad, find out what's going on with the barn."

Peridot opened her mouth and then closed it again and swallowed hard. "I see." She pictured her toolbox again. She was going to have to get to work at once.

xxx

At the bottom of the steps, Steven paused, debating which way to go. If he turned left, he'd wind up at his father's car wash. If he turned right, he'd pass the Big Donut. The actual donuts themselves had done a bit downhill in quality ever since Lars had left to go to culinary school, but the coffee was all right, and even though he'd just had some, he still felt quite tired after his poor night's sleep.

He turned right. It wasn't as if he was in any hurry, the car wash would be open all day and it wasn't like his father was actually expecting him. He strolled along the beach, enjoying the sunshine and the slightly floaty feeling that comes with not getting enough sleep. At the Big Donut, he brought a double-shot Americano and two donuts, and walked down Thayer Street towards It's A Wash, only to find the car wash closed after all. He rummaged in his pocket for his phone. Then he rummaged in his other pocket. And then he clapped a hand to his forehead, almost squashing the donuts as he did so. He'd left the phone on the dresser in the Temple.

Once again, he found himself debating which way to go. He could go back home for his phone and call his dad to find out where he was, or he could just go to his house, which was probably where he was anyway. And he _was_ already in town. And he'd brought donuts. So once again, he turned around and began walking until he arrived outside Greg's house, a few streets away.

For the first two years after his unexpected windfall, Greg had continued to live in his van, insisting that he didn't need anything else, but a few cold snaps and an accidental flooding caused by Lapis had finally convinced him otherwise. It wasn't a mansion by any stretch of the imagination as Greg wouldn't even begin to know what to do with _that_ amount of space, but it did have a two-car garage, a spare room for Steven, a recording studio and lights that you could switch on and off by clapping. There was no answer when Steven knocked on the door, so he used the spare key he'd been given and cautiously pushed the door open. "Dad? It's me, your favorite son."

There was still no answer. He walked through the empty kitchen, placing the bag of donuts on the counter, and approached the studio. "Dad? Are you in there? And if you are, am I about to ruin a song?"

The studio was empty. Steven sighed and turned around, about to head up the stairs to check the bedrooms, when he caught sight of the door that lead to the garage. He pushed it open and looked inside to find the Dondai missing. Evidently, his dad had driven off somewhere. "Maybe he went grocery shopping," Steven said aloud. He briefly considered just giving up and going home, but rejected the idea at once. He'd come this far, and if his dad had gone shopping, he'd have to come back to put it all away before he went anywhere else, so he'd stay here and wait for him to return.

He closed the door and walked back into the living room and switched on the TV, scrolling through channels until he found an old martial arts movie. Then he kicked off his shoes and relaxed on the sofa.

xxx

"…Steven… Schtoo-ball... Psst… Steven…"

Several seconds of this passed before the words finally registered in his brain, then several more before he realized the voice was calling his name. Except, hadn't he already woken up once already today? Was he in one of those dreams where he thought he was awake only to find he was still asleep? He tried to roll over and promptly fell off the sofa with a thump. "Ow."

"Jeez, are you OK?" Greg knelt down beside him and helped him climb back onto the sofa. "Seriously, are you OK? You don't look so good there, buddy."

"Guhhhh." He shook his head and tried again. "Blaugh."

Greg smiled sympathetically. "Rough night?"

"Ugh. Not my best," Steven admitted. He rubbed his aching eyes and grimaced. The impromptu nap hadn't made him feel any better, in fact, if anything, he actually felt worse. His head ached, his eyes ached, his neck ached, his mouth felt dry and cottony, and he actually felt even more tired than he had before.

"I'll make you a coffee."

Steven pulled a face; the thought of yet more coffee made him feel slightly queasy, but he followed his father into the kitchen and watched him tinker with the coffee machine. "I brought you a donut."

"Thanks." Greg handed over the coffee and took the donut in exchange. "So what brings you here today? Was there a problem with the furniture after all?"

"No, it's all good. I just thought I'd come over and see if you'd spoken to Uncle Andy about the barn yet."

"Oh." Greg frowned. "Right… why, is there a problem with Peridot?"

"What? No!" Steven looked startled by the question. "No, she's fine!"

"Oh, good." Greg relaxed. "I just thought, because you said you hadn't slept well…"

"It's a little difficult to get used to having her around," Steven said with a yawn. "But we're working on it. No, I was thinking more about when Lapis comes back, she still might not wanna live in the Temple."

Greg nodded slowly. "Well, I was actually talking to your Uncle Andy today, that's why I wasn't around. I went to meet him for lunch in Empire City."

"Yeah?" Steven sipped at his coffee, then took a bite of his donut to try and take the taste away. Then he had another sip of coffee to try and take away the taste of the donut. "What did he say?"

"Ummmm…" Greg took a sip of his own coffee, playing for time. "He… wasn't very happy," he said finally. "He uh, he doesn't want to rebuild the barn."

Steven considered that for a moment. "Because he can't afford it? That's not a problem, we can-"

"It's not that," Greg interrupted. He bit his lip, trying to think of a nice way to phrase things and silently cursing his cousin. The more time he spent around the man, the more he remembered why he hadn't made any attempt to talk to his family for twenty years. But Steven seemed to like Andy, so Greg made the effort on his behalf. "He said… the barn may have been a gift, but uh…" He closed his eyes briefly and then opened them again. There really wasn't any way he could sugarcoat it. "But not the land. Now the barn's been destroyed, he wants to sell up to a developer."

"But… can't _you_ buy it?" Steven asked tentatively.

"It's not as easy as that," Greg said vaguely. What he didn't say was that he didn't really want to buy the land from Andy at all. When Andy had found out just how rich Greg was, he'd approached him, asking him to pay a ridiculous sum of rent on the barn. Greg had refused, calmly pointing out that he'd given the barn as a gift in front of witnesses who had superpowers. If he brought the land now, Andy would win. Also, with half of his money safely placed in a trust fund for Steven and most of rest now tied up in some stocks and shares Garnet had suggest he invest in, he simply didn't have the cash available. "I'm gonna keep trying to see if I can get him to change his mind, but he _does_ sell, we can always buy some place else for Lapis to live. You never know, she might decide to live at one of those rude places she's visiting," he suggested with a small smile.

"Yeah," Steven mumbled. "But I liked the barn. It was close by. There was a warp pad there."

"The warp pad can be moved," Greg said, and quickly changed the subject. "So Peridot's definitely going to stay with you guys then?"

Steven smiled fondly. "Yeah. She's quite excited at the thought of being included in more missions with the gems."

Greg nodded thoughtfully. "Are you gonna try that ceremony again? I know you said you're working on it, but if she's gonna stay there permanently, she kinda needs her own room." He smiled dryly, remembering his own brief stay in the house. "The place isn't exactly designed for multiple occupants."

"I know," Steven admitted. "We already had to move all her furniture into my room in the Temple because there wasn't really space for it."

Greg frowned, remembering those days hanging around outside the Temple when he'd first met Rose, outside doors he could never open. "That sounds inconvenient."

"I know," Steven said again. "When I get back home, I'm gonna talk to the gems about trying the ceremony again." Then he sighed. "But it might have to wait a day or two, I think if I tried closing my eyes to concentrate now, I'd just fall asleep."

"Well you know, you have a room here too," Greg reminded him. "If you wanna get a good night's sleep before the ceremony, you're always welcome to stay here."

Steven nodded slowly. "I may have to take you up on that offer."

xxx

Peridot looked at her tablet, comparing the blueprints she'd made the night before with the thing currently sitting on the kitchen counter, and smiled proudly. It was nowhere near finished, but so far, it seemed to be going to plan. She was going to need more parts before she could go any further though, so with extreme care, she picked it up and placed it gently in the fridge. Then she looked down at her t-shirt and frowned. Somehow, she'd managed to get grease marks all over it when she was taking apart the microwave, and there was a scorched hole in it from where she'd dropped her soldering iron. She really wanted to look her best when she showed off her contribution to the group, and this look was no longer working.

Unfortunately, all of her clothes were now on the other side of a locked door, and Steven hadn't come home yet.

Then again, she'd seen Amethyst step into the Temple just a few minutes ago, so as far as she knew, the other gems were still around. She marched up to the Temple door and knocked loudly. After a few seconds, the door opened and Garnet peered down at her. "Hello."

"Hello," Peridot smiled hopefully up at the elder gem. "Could you possibly show me the route to Steven's room? I need to change my shirt," she added as Garnet stared impassively down at her.

"Of course." Garnet stepped aside to let her enter and then began walking across the room.

Peridot hadn't been in the Burning Room since she herself had been bubbled, and she couldn't help having a quick look around. She spotted several fusion experiments, ones that had actually crawled out of the ground by the barn and inadvertently inspired her nightmares. A multicolored gem in a pink bubble floated near the ceiling and she guessed that must be Bismuth. And then she spotted the orange gem and almost tripped over her own feet. Jasper. Corrupted and bubbled. Would they ever be able to cure her?

"Peridot. This way."

"Sorry." Peridot jogged to catch up with Garnet, who had stopped by one of the large veins that ran through the room.

"She's in no pain," Garnet said, guessing what had caught the other gem's attention. "I'm hopeful we can still help her. Steven's made more progress curing corruption in the past five years than we did in five thousand."

Peridot glanced back at Bismuth again. There was a gem who had avoided the corrupting song of the Diamonds, a Crystal Gem, and yet she was still in the Rose Quartz bubble Steven had put her in four years ago. "What about _her_?"

Garnet pursed her lips. "I don't know," she admitted.

She knew it really wasn't any of her business, but Peridot couldn't help prodding the subject a little more. "Steven feels guilty about keeping her bubbled."

"Hmm." Garnet looked back at the gem herself and frowned. "It's… complicated."

Peridot frowned as well, a little annoyed that Garnet didn't seem to be taking Steven's feelings seriously, but before she could make any further comment, Garnet patted the vein next to her. "Do you think you can you climb up this? It passes through Ro- Steven's room."

"Uh…"

"Actually, it's probably easier if I just do this."

Almost before Peridot realized what was going on, Garnet picked her up and threw her through the ceiling. By the time she'd opened her mouth to scream, she'd already landed on the pink, fluffy clouds in the room above. She allowed herself a moment to stick her tongue out at the floor, then crossed over to her dresser and began searching.

xxx

If Steven had been a little more alert, he might have wondered why Peridot wasn't in the house. But he was tired, his head hurt and the only thing on his mind was getting his phone back so he could read Lapis's blog. He opened the door to his room and stepped inside, and sighed in annoyance when Peridot let out a small squeak of surprise and clutched her t-shirt to her chest. "Steven! I-I didn't expect-"

"Room, you need to stop doing this!" Steven snapped, and stepped forward and flapped his hands at her, expecting her to disappear in a puff of cloud. Instead, there was a loud _smack_ and Peridot staggered backwards. For a moment, they just stared at each other in stunned surprise, and then Steven lunged for his phone.

"Ow! What was that for!?" Peridot asked, hurt and bewildered. She took a hasty step backwards and folded her arms protectively over her bra as he pointed the phone in her direction. "What are you _doing_!?"

For a moment, Steven kept staring in disbelief at the image on the camera screen, trying to convince himself that it was another trick of the room. "How- what- you're really _real_?"

"Of course I'm real!" Peridot snapped. She raised a hand to touch her cheek and winced. Steven was a Quartz, and the blow hurt far more than the one she'd received from Pearl a few years ago. "Why would you think otherwise?"

"The-the room," Steven stammered. "It pretends to be real- I didn't know- I'm so sorry!" He took a step towards her and felt his stomach drop when she took another step back. "I didn't know you were in here. I thought the room made you up. It's done it before."

"It has?" Peridot almost frowned in confusion, but it hurt too much so she stopped.

"It made all of Beach City once," he quickly added, hoping she wouldn't work out the exact truth. "I didn't figure it out until I tried to bite a donut." A dark green bruise was beginning to blossom across her cheek and he swallowed hard in shame. "I'm sorry, I really am. I honestly didn't think it was you."

"I needed a clean shirt," Peridot muttered, glancing down at the bunched fabric in her arms. "All my things are in here. Garnet let me in."

"I'm sorry," he said again helplessly. "I never wanted to hurt you."

Her eyes flickered up to meet his and she sighed. "I know. And I accept your apology."

Some of the sick shame vanished, but there was still plenty remaining when he looked at her bruised cheek. "Would you let me heal you?" he asked tentatively, half-expecting her to say no.

Instead she nodded at once. "Please! Do!" She stepped forward and angled her face towards him, and exhaled in relief when his lips gently brushed her skin, the healing magic instantly repairing the damage. She smiled softly at him when he stepped back again. "Thank you."

He smiled an awkward smile in return. "It's the least I could do."

"True." Her smile widened a little. "Now if you would like to do more, please leave so that I can finally put this shirt on."


	7. Chapter 7

As soon as the door closed behind Steven, he dropped his head into his hands and groaned loudly. "Nice going, Steven!" he berated himself. "Why don't you just give her a roundhouse kick next time? That'll be _really_ romantic!"

The only response was his stomach growling. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the time and was surprised to see how late it was. He'd slept for longer than he realized, and all he'd had to eat since breakfast was a slightly gross donut. Brooding over his mistake in the room would have to wait. Right now, he needed to eat.

He opened the fridge, expecting to see either food or nothing, depending on whether Amethyst had been there or not. What he wasn't expecting to see was a yellow glowing orb suspended in a framework of… wire hangers? "What the hell?" he murmured to himself. He suddenly looked back suspiciously at the Temple door and opened the camera app again. Nope, this was real. Unless… what if his _phone_ wasn't real? What if the room had produced a fake phone to make him _think_ everything that had happened after he'd stepped in the room was real? Except he couldn't think of any reason why the room would let him think he'd hit Peridot if it really was fake. Or… maybe he was still asleep and _none_ of this was real! Maybe he still on the sofa at his dad's house! He pinched his arm and winced. "Ow. OK. I'm awake, and this is probably real."

Still, in his experience, there was really only one way to be certain. He peered into the fridge again and spotted a plate of sausages behind the glowing orb thingy. All he needed to do was bite one. He reached into the fridge and dragged out the strange contraption, intending to put it on the counter while he went back for the sausages, but before he could do so, it suddenly began to spin and glow brighter. "Ah. That's ominous." He gulped and tried to put it down, but it seemed to be somehow stuck to him. "Uhhhh… guys? Is this supposed to be doing this!?"

At that moment, Peridot stepped out of the Temple. For a split second, she froze, her eyes widening with horror, then she ran towards him. "Bubble it!"

Steven did as he was told, but he was unprepared for what happened next. Which was Peridot grabbing him around the waist and, with surprising strength, throwing him halfway across the room, where he stumbled and fell over with a yelp. "Stay down!" she shouted, and flung herself to the ground next to him.

For a moment, the bubble floated serenely in the middle of the kitchen, then all of a sudden, it began to bulge outwards as the orb expanded, glowing ever brighter. Just as the light was getting painful to look at, the entire thing seemed to turn inside out. A powerful wind sprang up, tossing up loose paper, cutlery, plates and assorted kitchen décor, and Steven felt himself being pulled across the floor, but before he could start screaming, the whole thing winked out of existence and everything crashed to the floor.

He sat up slowly and stared at the mess in the kitchen. "What the _hell_ was that!?"

"That's what I'd like to know."

They both turned to see Garnet standing in the doorway, staring sternly at them. At least, Steven assumed she was, it was always difficult to tell when she had her shades on.

Peridot climbed to her feet and folded her arms crossly. "It _was_ a fuel cell for a faster-than-light drive I was developing before it turned into a black hole and collapsed."

Steven gaped at her in disbelief. "And you put it in the _fridge_!?"

"Yes?" Peridot looked blankly at him. "It needed to be kept cool while it stabilized."

"So… you put it in the fridge," Steven repeated. "Where the food lives."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I was not made aware that the fridge was off limits-"

"If I may interrupt," Garnet interrupted, " _why_ exactly were you making a fuel cell for a faster-than-light drive in the first place?"

"To help!" Peridot exclaimed as if it were obvious. After her nightmare, she'd found herself thinking about Rose Quartz, uncomfortably wondering just how hypocritical it was of her to judge Rose for not doing more to help gems when _she_ hadn't done anything to help them either. Rose, at least, had been hindered by the technology of her time. How could she help the gems on Homeworld when she was trapped on Earth? But Peridot had no such excuse. They'd even had a _ship_ at one point, and let it slip through their fingers. Suddenly inspired, she'd spent the rest of the night working on her tablet, drawing up plans that would take them to Homeworld again. "I know that realistically, we don't have the power overthrow the Diamonds, but if we could get to Homeworld, we could do at least do _something_! Rescue the off-colors, or release the bubbled Rose Quartz gems or-"

"I'm going to stop you right there," Garnet said before she could go any further. She reached up and flicked away her shades, fixing all three eyes upon Peridot. "I applaud your initiative, Peridot, and if you want to continue trying to build a faster-than-light drive, that's fine by me. Although I would prefer that you not do so in the house. But at this moment in time, I have no desire to make any strike against Homeworld, no matter how small."

"What!?" Steven sat up straighter and Peridot's jaw dropped in dismay. "Why!?"

Garnet's gaze flickered over to him and she smiled sadly. "Surely you remember what happened when we tried to rescue Lars? The only reason we survived was because he discovered his teleportation powers in time. Now Homeworld believe Rose Quartz is finally dead. We've had four years of peace since then, you've finally been able to just be human, like your mother wanted. You were never supposed to have to fight her battles. It's one of the reasons why we haven't unbubbled Bismuth either," she added as Steven opened his mouth to protest. "Pearl and I have discussed it, many times. Rose did her a great wrong, and we were worried that she might still blame you for that. After all, it took years for us to fully understand that you were a completely separate being to Rose. Bismuth had less than a day to process that information."

Steven grimaced. He knew it wasn't his fault, but it sure did sound like it was his fault. "You know I can beat her if I need to," he muttered.

"I know." She reached out and ruffled his hair. "But I don't want you to have to fight her. No, that's not true," she immediately admitted. " _I_ don't want to have to fight her."

"I'll fight her if you like," Peridot offered.

Garnet laughed and ruffled Peridot's hair as well, much to her annoyance. "That's very generous offer. Thank you. But maybe just stick to making the faster-than-light drive for now." She flicked her fingers and her shades reappeared. "This peace won't last forever, Homeworld may have left us alone for now, but sooner or later, Yellow Diamond's going to wonder why her Cluster still hasn't emerged. When that happens, it would be nice to have some modern technology to fight back with." And then, apparently deciding the conversation was over, she turned and walked back into the Temple.

"So," Steven said after a few seconds of silence, picking up a shard of broken crockery and tossing it into the bin. "I guess that means Bismuth stays bubbled for now."

Peridot pulled a face at the Temple door and patted her hair back into place. "I was actually serious about fighting her if the need arose," she muttered. "After all, I have no emotional connection to her that would hold me back. Not in a brawl, obviously," she added quickly as Steven shot her an incredulous look, "but I could construct some drones to defend you if she were to attack, mount a blast cannon in your room… ooh!" She snapped her fingers. "I assume you all kept the debris from my ship, if I were permitted to examine it, perhaps I could attempt to build a destabilizer barrier around your bed."

"Wow." Steven whistled in admiration. "You are amazing, do you know that?"

She grinned, blushing slightly. "Well, yes, but it's nice to hear it occasionally."

"I think it's amazing, I think you're amazing," Steven sang at once, grinning widely as she blushed harder. "Da da da da, da da da, da da da- ow." He winced and hopped over to the kitchen counter, held onto it with one hand and took off his sandal. A small fragment of broken plate had stabbed him in the foot. "Ow ow ow. Ow. That hurt."

"Sorry." Peridot rummaged under the sink for the dustpan and began sweeping the floor. "Next time, I'll take Garnet's advice and store the fuel cell elsewhere."

"It's not your fault," Steven reassured her. "You'd think by now, I'd know better than to go handling glowing stuff I don't recognize." His stomach rumbled again, reminding him exactly why he'd taken the fuel cell out of the fridge to start with and even though he was now at least 98% certain this was reality, he looked back inside the fridge, grabbed one of the sausages and bit into it.

Real.

But not very nice. Definitely needed to be reheated. He stepped back and looked around. "Where's the microwave?"

Peridot looked away guiltily. "Ummmmmmmmm…"

He sighed and closed the door again. "It's in the black hole, isn't it?"

"Bits of it," she admitted. "Mostly the parts that were required to make it function. I didn't see any point in keeping the rest of it."

"What did you do with it?" He opened the door again, idly hoping it had been magically restocked in the three seconds it had been closed. "Not much in here," he muttered mostly to himself."

"Yes, Amethyst offered to make some space in there for me," Peridot said brightly. "She took the rest of the microwave too."

"Ah. That explains it." He closed the door again one more time and considered his options. Last time he'd looked, there had been some chaaaps and a box of mac and cheese in the cupboard, but he wanted something more substantial than just snacks, and he really didn't feel up to cooking. "I'm gonna head into town and get some food." He hesitated and then impulsively added, "do you wanna come with me?"

"Me?" Peridot looked to see if somebody else had walked in while she wasn't looking, but they appeared to be alone.

"Yeah, you. It'll be fun." A thought occurred to him, and he held up his phone. "I don't know if you saw yet, but Lapis updated her blog. We could read it together."

"Oh! No, I've been so busy, I hadn't had a chance to look yet." Peridot smiled, pleased by the invitation. "Very well, I shall accompany you to dinner."

"Great!" Steven immediately abandoned his half-formed plan to stop by Beach Citywalk Fries on the way to his dad's. Dinner with Peridot required something a little more upmarket than greasy fry bits. Fish Stew Pizza wasn't an option either; Kofi had sold the restaurant when Jenny and Kiki left for college and the new owners had made a number of bizarre changes, including 'deconstructed' pizza and serving the drinks in miniature fishbowls. "I'll see if I can find Lion and bribe him to take us into Beach City. Or I can call a cab." Recalling exactly why he was planning to head over to his dad's, he started heading towards the Temple door. "I just need to talk to Garnet first. Can you grab a Lion Licker from the freezer and try calling Lion?"

"Sure."

He knew he could enter via his own room and then make his way to Garnet's room, but after what had happened, he was in no hurry to go back in there, so instead, he knocked on the door. "Garnet?"

The door opened at once and Garnet smiled down at him. "Hello Steven. Would you like to come in?"

"Thanks." He stepped inside and the door closed behind him.

Like Peridot before him, he looked around at the bubbles with interest, and it didn't escape Garnet's attention that his eyes also sought out Bismuth and Jasper's gems. "What can I do for you?" she asked gently, drawing back his attention.

"Hmm? Oh. Right." He dragged his eyes back to her. "I was wondering, could we try the room ceremony again tomorrow? Peridot _really_ needs her own room."

"She does," Garnet agreed mildly. "And you need your space back. I've noticed you seem to be having a little trouble sleeping these past few days. It's not your fault," she continued as he opened his mouth to protest. "The house was only ever made for you. You've never really had to share it before."

"Whaaaaat!? I can share!" Steven protested in outrage.

"You live in a single bedroomed, open plan house," Garnet pointed out. "There simply isn't space for another person. Or her six hundred pairs of shoes," she joked. Then her face turned serious. "Pearl did briefly mention the issue earlier, but I'll talk to her and Amethyst again and tell them to prepare themselves for another ceremony. Hopefully now they've had a few days to get used to the idea, they'll find it easier to concentrate."

Steven nodded, but it took a few more seconds for his sleep-deprived brain to process her words. "Wait, you knew they'd messed up too?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Did _anyone_ manage to concentrate properly? Did _you_ manage it!?"

"The first ceremony was never going to be successful," Garnet admitted cheerfully. "I spent the time looking for spoilers for TV shows." She adjusted her shades. "The Harry Potter TV series is going to be good."

"Harry Potter TV series?" he repeated, momentarily distracted.

"It's going to be announced in two months."

"I gotta reread the books," he said mostly to himself. "Is Peeves in it? No, don't tell me!" he quickly added before she could speak. "Don't tell me _anything!_ "

Garnet nodded solemnly. "We can try the ceremony again tomorrow," she said, getting back on track. "But _you_ need to get a good night's sleep."

"Not a problem," Steven confidently reassured her. "I'm going to stay at Dad's tonight."

"That's a good idea," she said approvingly. "I'll see you in the morning then, bright and early. Well, mid-morning," she amended. "No rush. Sleep in."

"I'm going to turn off my phone and sleep for ten- no, _twelve_ hours." Steven closed his eyes blissfully. Then he kept them closed for another five seconds because it just felt so nice.

"Steven."

"I'm awake."

xxx

Lion skidded to a halt in the middle of Main Street, and Steven slid off of his back and helped Peridot down. "Thanks, Lion. We'll bring you some leftovers."

"So…" Peridot looked up and down the street, at the various restaurants scattered along its length. "Where are we bringing him leftovers from?"

"Hmm." Steven looked around as well. The familiar bright lights of McDonalds halfway down the block beckoned, but he rejected it as an option at once. Wok This Way was just across the road, but still, it didn't seem quite good enough. He turned slowly, and spotted fancy chairs and tables arranged underneath a maroon awning. "Tammy's… Disco?" Somehow that didn't sound quite right. He blinked his eyes and the letters came into focus. "Tommy's Bistro! It's an Italian restaurant. Have you ever tried Italian food?"

"I tried a piece of lasagna once," Peridot said. "I don't think I did it correctly though, it was extremely bland. And is it supposed to crunch?

"No, that doesn't sound quite right," Steven said with a smile. "Come on, let's go in, they'll show you how it's done."

They stepped inside and were quickly directed over to a table for two, decorated with a stereotypical red-checked tablecloth and a red candle jammed into an empty Chianti bottle. A smiling waitress handed them each a menu and then vanished to let them peruse them in peace. "So do you wanna try lasagna?" Steven asked. "Or something else?"

"Hmm…" Peridot ran her eyes down the menu, but she quickly realized she was out of her depth. "I don't know," she admitted. "I don't even know how to pronounce many of these dishes. What do you recommend?"

"Well…" He looked at the menu himself, blinking a few times as the words swam before him for a moment before slowly becoming clear. "Spaghetti bolognese is a classic. Can't go wrong there. Or you can have spaghetti al pomodoro if you'd prefer it without meat.

"That sounds acceptable," she said quickly, before he could complicate things by offering more choices. "What are you going to have?"

"Lasagna," he cheerfully replied at once. "Talking about it has given me a craving."

The waitress returned and took their order, politely refused to serve them any wine and returned a few minutes later with two glasses of iced tea instead. Then while they waited for the food to arrive, Steven pulled up Lapis's blog on his phone. "Bum Bum Island," he read aloud, "does not seem to have done anything to capitalize upon the fact that it is named Bum Bum Island. I was completely unable to find any sort of bottom-related merchandize. In conclusion, I award Bum Bum Island two out of ten raspberries."

"Is that it?" Peridot came around to the other side of the table and leaned over his shoulder to see the screen for himself. "Where's the rest?"

"There's a selfie," Steven offered, holding up the phone so that she could see the slightly blurry image of Lapis stood on a beach. Evidently unable to find a suitable sign to take a picture of, Lapis had instead written 'Bum Bum Island' in the sand. "But that's it. Do you know where she's planning to go next?"

"I believe her next destination is Burrumbuttock," Peridot said thoughtfully. "If I recall correctly, which I do, she was planning to visit bottom-related places first. Bum, Bum, Bumbum, Bare Bum, Lovely Bottom, Butthole Lane, Ass, that sort of thing."

"She should finish by visiting Uranus," Steven quipped.

Peridot grinned. "She did actually consider it, but in the end she decided that for her first tour, she would feel safer remaining on Earth."

"I suppose that makes sense," Steven agreed. Then out of curiosity, he searched for Burrumbuttock on his phone, and they both spent the next few minutes reading the results until their food arrived. After generously allowing Peridot a small bite, Steven attacked his lasagna with gusto while she struggled to stop the spaghetti from sliding off of her fork. "Try twirling it around your fork," he suggested.

Peridot obediently spun her fork. Spaghetti and sauce immediately spattered over them both. Steven burst out laughing at the look of stunned surprise on her face and handed her a napkin. "Sorry, I probably could've explained that better," he said, grabbing another napkin to wipe his own face. "You kinda stab the fork at the plate and spin it- here, I'll show you."

She watched attentively as he spun the fork through the spaghetti and raised it aloft, pasta perfectly wound around the tines. "Ohhhhh!"

"Now you try," Steven said, absently popping the fork into his mouth. "Ah, sorry."

She waved away his apology. "It's fine, I already ate your lasagna. Now we're even." She put down the napkin and hoped she didn't still have sauce in her hair or something. And of course, her nice, clean shirt was now covered with red splotches. Actually… "Excuse me." She pushed back her chair and stood up. "I'm just going to try and clean up a little better."

She weaved carefully though tables of dining couples towards the restroom. Then she slowed down and took another look around as something occurred to her. _Couples_. Everywhere she looked were couples, talking and laughing and exchanging loving looks across the candlelit tables. There was one small group of friends over in the corner, but no families, and no children. The lights were dimmed, the music was soft and lilting and the entire atmosphere was one of romance. She pushed open the door to the restroom and frowned thoughtfully at her reflection in the mirror there.

Was this a _date?_

No. Of course not. She shook her head, dismissing the thought at once. That was just wishful thinking. For starters, she was pretty sure that both parties had to agree it was a date before it could be a date, no matter how much it felt like it might be a date. This was just Steven being his usual nice self, nothing more. He was probably just lonely because Connie had left for college. And he definitely wasn't interested in a little green gem who couldn't even eat spaghetti properly. She scowled at her reflection, held a towel under the faucet and began dabbing at the red stains on her shirt.

Still… her expression softened slightly. There was no harm in _pretending_ it was a date. OK, she wouldn't get her hopes up about a kiss at the end of the night, but if he asked her if she'd like to try sleeping again when they returned to the house, she was going to say yes.

Cheered by that thought, she finished tidying herself up, tossed the towel aside and stepped back out into the main restaurant only to find that Steven had fallen asleep face-first in the remains of his lasagna.

xxx

Happily Lion didn't seem to mind the fact that the leftovers had Steven's face imprinted in them, and a few short moments later, he skidded to a halt on the beach outside the house. Steven slid off of his back and staggered towards the steps, feeling ever-so-slightly off balance. The stairs seemed to go on forever, but he valiantly dragged himself up each one until he reached the top.

"You should go straight to bed," Peridot spoke from somewhere behind him. He looked up at his room, where his lovely comfy bed beckoned, and was deeply tempted to do as she said, just climb up there and sleep. But the slightly more sensible part of his brain pointed out that if he did that, he'd only wake up three hours later, all uncomfortable because he still had his clothes and shoes on. And then a whole bunch of other stuff was bound to happen to stop him falling asleep again, because it had been that kind of week. Besides, his dad was expecting him.

He shook his head and turned towards the bathroom instead. "I gotta wash. I can still smell lasagna. I think there's some up my nose," he grumbled.

"Very well. I'll wait until you're done." Peridot sat down on the sofa, and was surprised to see Steven smack his hand against his forehead.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you, you have the place to yourself tonight. I'm gonna sleep at Dad's. So you can watch TV and stuff!" He smiled brightly and turned away, completely missing the way her face fell at the news.

He blew his nose (and discovered that there was indeed still lasagna up his nose) and washed his face in cold water, after which he felt a little more alert. Then he grabbed his phone charger and headed towards the door. "I'll see you in the morning, bye!"

The door slammed shut behind him before Peridot could speak, and the sound echoed through the empty house. Suddenly it felt a lot bigger and lonelier than it ever had before.


	8. Chapter 8

Lion had disappeared in the short time it had taken for him to wash, so Steven began walking. The cool air made him feel slightly more awake, but he was still a little worried he might suddenly fall asleep while he was walking, so he pulled his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through his contacts until he reached Connie's name.

The phone rang twice, and then her voice sounded on the other end. "Hey, Steven! What's up?"

"I need to talk to you," Steven said at once. "Not for any bad reason," he quickly added, belatedly realizing how ominous those words sounded, "it's just I'm really, really,  _really_  tired and if I don't do something or talk to someone, I'm genuinely afraid I might pass out again and be mistaken for a dead body."

"Oh! OK. Um… so do you wanna tell me why you're so exhausted?" Connie asked. "Is it a gem thing?"

"I guess you could say that." He quickly explained about the storm and the barn and the failed room ceremony. "So now Peridot lives in the house as well."

"And… she's keeping you up at night?" Connie couldn't help smirking at her unintended double-entendre. "Well, well, well! That was fast work!"

"Not like that!" Steven protested. "I just couldn't sleep with her in the room! She listens to music and it was distracting! She stays in the bathroom at night!"

Connie laughed. "I know, I'm just messing with you."

Exhaustion was like a truth serum and the words slipped out before they'd even fully taken form in his mind. "I really like her though."

"Really?" On the other end of the line, Connie sat up a little straighter, intrigued. "Tell me more."

"What?" Steven said blankly. "Wait, did I say that out loud?"

"You did," she said serenely, and lounged back in her chair, idly pushing at her desk with her foot to make it spin from side to side. "And as your BFF, I'm going to need you to explain yourself further."

"Um." Steven could feel his cheeks heating up despite the cool night air. "There's really not much to tell. I just… like her."

There was a loud snort in his ear and he winced and pulled away. "Well yeah, I worked out  _that_  much," Connie replied, her voice tinny and faint. "You've had a low-key crush on her since the first time you saw her."

"No I haven't," he protested weakly.

"I possess fully functioning eyes, Steven. Which is all your fault, by the way," she pointed out.

"OK, I admit it!" He shook his head in defeat. "I thought she looked cool and I wanted to be her friend."

"And now you want to be her  _boyyyyyfrieeeeend_!" Connie sang gleefully. "Steven and Peridot, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-"

"Connieeeeeeee!" Steven whined. "You're supposed to be my  _friend_! I need advice, not mockery!"

"Wellllll…." Connie pushed a foot against the desk and swung around the other way. Tormenting him was a lot of fun, but she had to admit, Steven did sound desperate. Of course, that could just be the sleep deprivation. "OK. Advice from your Auntie Connie." She cleared her throat and put on a deep and serious expression that was completely wasted because nobody was around to see it. "Have you considered telling her how you feel?"

Steven kicked up sand with his toes and watched it drift away on the breeze. "No, but I almost kissed her yesterday," he offered.

"And?"

"Amethyst tripped over a flat pack desk and swore a lot and it kinda spoiled the moment and she went running to make sure nothing got broken."

Connie mulled over that for a moment. "Well… did she seem to be into it before that?"

"I don't know!" He groaned and rubbed his hand against his forehead. "I thought maybe she was, but I was tired. Maybe I hallucinated it."

"But she didn't push you away or slap you or anything, did she?" Connie persisted.

"No," he admitted.

"So talk to her!" Connie was beginning to feel a little dizzy, so she stuck her foot out and stopped spinning. The room continued to move around her and she blinked a few times until it finally stopped. "Tell her how you feel! What's the worst that could happen? Don't answer that," she added quickly. "OK, maybe she won't feel the same way and that sucks, but at least you'll  _know_ , right?"

Steven sighed and stepped onto the access ramp that led to the Big Donut and Boardwalk Street. What she was saying made sense, but he wasn't entirely sure if he  _wanted_  to know. If he never told Peridot how he felt, she couldn't turn him down and break his heart. "What if I just make things weird?" he said in a small voice.

There was silence on the other end of the line, the Connie spoke, a little hesitantly. "Well…  _we_  weren't weird. I mean," she amended, "that kiss was weird, but  _we_  weren't weird about it, were we?"

"…No," Steven said slowly. "But we didn't like each other like that anyway." His own initial crush on Connie had quickly faded as they became friends, while hers had abruptly vanished when Lars had finally arrived home after several months on Homeworld, pink, undead and possibly immortal, and she suddenly understood just how much danger she'd been throwing herself into. But they were surrounded on all sides by people who seemed utterly convinced that they were meant to be together, and it was difficult to ignore that much peer pressure, so one evening, when they were alone on the beach, they'd kissed. Just to be sure. And immediately agreed never to speak of it ever again.

"True," Connie conceded. She sighed and leaned forward, resting her elbow on her desk. "Maybe you should just invite her out for coffee, see how that goes. You don't have to start talking about feelings straight away or anything."

Steven stuck his tongue out in distaste. "I think if I drink any more coffee, I'll throw up."

Connie rolled her eyes. "Take her out to dinner then, dummy!"

"Great idea. So great, I did it already."

"And?" she asked cautiously.

"I fell asleep and almost drowned in my lasagna." He smiled a self-depreciating smile as he heard her start laughing. "Anyway, enough about me and my disastrous love life. How are you? How's college? How's  _your_ love life?"

"I'm fine, college is fine, and there's a cute guy in my Creative Writing class I have my eye on," she listed, ticking each reply off on her fingers as she spoke. "We got into a discussion last week about the treatment of squibs in Harry Potter. I'm gonna ask him for coffee on the pretext of asking him if I can use one of his ideas in a fanfic."

"Oh, that reminds me," he said with a yawn. "Garnet says there's going to be a Harry Potter TV show announced soon."

"Oh my God, are you kidding me!?" Connie cried, sitting bolt upright at once. "Are they gonna treat Ginny properly this time? Please tell me they treat Ginny properly this time!"

"I told her not to tell me anything." He walked past the park and turned onto Fenton Street. "All I know is that it's gonna be good."

"Oh my God, a Harry Potter TV series," Connie said again, mostly to herself. "They'll be able to fit it all the stuff they missed in the movies. Peeves, SPEW, the Quidditch World Cup, all the Horcruxes…"

"Lockhart's singing dwarves," Steven added with a grin. He saw his father's house up ahead and with the end now literally in sight, he picked up the pace. "I'm almost at my dad's now, I'm gonna go in a moment-"

"Your dad's?" Connie repeated in surprise.

He nodded before remembering that she couldn't see him. "Yeah, I'm going to sleep there tonight."

"Oh, right. I see. I just assumed you were walking home for some reason."

"No, I asked Garnet if we could try the room ceremony again tomorrow, and I wanted to be sure I got a good night's sleep first."

"Ah, I see." Connie relaxed in her chair once again. "I bet Peridot's happy about that. It can't be pleasant spending all night in your bathroom. Anyway, I gotta go now, I have a three thousand word essay tomorrow and I still need five hundred words."

"OK, thanks for talking to me and keeping me awake." He began walking up the path to the front door. "Let me know when you're back home again, we'll hang out."

"Will do. Sleep well. And good luck with Peridot, bye!"

"Bye." Steven shook his head and smiled as he disconnected the call and raised his hand to knock on the door. The smile faded as he waited for his dad to answer; something Connie had said was bothering him, but he was too tired to pinpoint exactly what it was.

xxx

On the other side of town, Peridot was also knocking on a locked door. She wanted to change out of her tomato-stained top and into something clean, but this time, there was no answer. Undeterred, she knocked a little louder and waited patiently. Then she knocked and waited impatiently. "Hello? Is there anybody in there? I wish to enter!"

There was no response. She frowned and stepped away from the door, wondering where they could possibly be. On a mission, perhaps? That seemed the most likely answer, but surely they would've at least told Steven? She looked around the room and finally spotted the note hung on the door of the fridge.

_Dear Steven._

_We are dealing with a small foliage emergency in the forest. We will be back by the morning. Sleep well._

_Garnet x_

_PS: We love you._

It did not escape Peridot's attention that her name was not mentioned on the note. They'd probably forgotten about her. Again. And no wonder, she thought sourly, casting another quick look around. Other than her tablet and tool box, all of her possessions had been swept away, out of sight. Even the tea light holders had vanished. There was no other sign that anybody other than Steven lived in this house. And now he was gone as well.

A sudden rush of homesickness washed over her. She missed Lapis and the barn. Impulsively, she picked up her tablet and initiated a Facetime call and a few seconds later, Lapis's grinning face appeared on the screen. "Hi, Peridot! What's up?"

Peridot forced her features into a smile in return. "Hello. I was just wondering how your travels are proceeding?"

Somehow Lapis's grin grew even wider. "I'm having a  _brilliant_  time! Did you read my blog yet? I updated it today."

"Yes, Steven and I read it earlier. You didn't write very much," she said, a little accusatory.

"Well, that's because there wasn't very much to write about," Lapis said mildly. "It wasn't a very interesting island."

"But you're having fun?" Peridot pressed. "You don't… regret leaving?"

"Absolutely not," the other gem said emphatically. "This is the most fun I've had since…" She stopped to think. "Actually, I think it really is the most fun I've  _ever_  had in my life! It's just so nice, visiting places and seeing them and not destroying them."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." Peridot hoped she looked like she meant it.

"I am," Lapis said happily. "So what about you, are you enjoying life with the Crystal Gems? Have you been on any missions yet?"

"Well… no, not yet," Peridot admitted. "But that's because Steven and I have been exceptionally busy organizing our shared space."

"Hey, where  _is_ Steven, anyway?" Lapis asked, tilting her head as if that would let her see more of the room.

"Oooh, look at the time, I gotta go," Peridot said hurriedly, and disconnected the call before Lapis could say another word. Then she tossed her tablet onto the sofa and sighed heavily. Talking to Lapis hadn't made her feel any better at all, clearly the other gem was having a simply wonderful time without her, and whining about her own situation would just be selfish. Maybe Pearl had a point, she thought gloomily, maybe she should just move back into the barn once it was rebuilt.

Her eyes flickered over towards the warp pad. Garnet had told Greg about the barn, and Greg had said he would tell Andy, but nobody had updated her on any further progress. Had the work actually begun yet? Before she could change her mind, she crossed the room and stepped onto the warp pad, arriving moments later on the hill opposite the site where the barn had once stood. And to her delight, just visible in the fading light, were a small group of people, one of which was recognizable as Andy. She jogged down hill and slowed to a walk as she neared them.

"-doing business with you," Andy was saying as she approached. She waited until the other people finished smiling and nodding and shaking his hand, and then cleared her throat to get his attention, and he spun around, startled. "Oh, it's you. Whaddya want, greenie?"

"My name's Peridot," she said politely. For some reason, Andy seemed incapable of remembering her name. She half suspected he did it on purpose. "I was just wondering if you had an estimated timeframe for the rebuilding of the barn?"

"What now?" Andy said blankly. Then suddenly he understood and laughed. "Wait, ol' Greg didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Peridot said cautiously, not liking the smirk on his face.

"I'm selling up!" Andy exclaimed gleefully. "Just finished signing the contract!"

"B-but- what about the barn?" Peridot stammered. "We  _live_  there!"

"Not any more, you don't," Andy said flatly. "You burned it down, or blew it up or something, so now I'm selling the land."

"But-" Peridot began again, feeling her stomach drop with dismay. "You  _gave_ us the land-"

"I gave you hippies the  _barn_ ," Andy corrected. "Ain't my fault you didn't take care of it. If you'd paid rent like law abiding citizens, maybe I coulda afforded to rebuild it. But you didn't, did you? And I don't have the money to go building barns all over the place for freeloading space hippies. I mean, this is prime real estate!" He gestured towards the barn wreckage and the fields beyond. "Look at those ocean views! If you ain't gonna pay for it, I'm selling to someone else who will."

"Greg-" Peridot started.

"-Was offered first shot," Andy interrupted. "And he turned it down. So much for family, huh? So I sold to a developer instead." He grinned and folded his arms. "This time next year, there's gonna be twelve luxury condos here. Expensive ones, should attract a decent class of people. No…  _undesirables_." He cackled and clapped a hand on her shoulder, almost knocking her into the dirt. "Of course, if you ask nicely, I could put in a word for you and the cute blue one, see if I can get you one at a discount."

"Um, no thank you," she muttered, wriggling free.

"Well if you change your mind, tell Greg to give me a call." Andy laughed again, and then turned his back on her and strode off towards his plane. Peridot scowled after him and had a quick, brief daydream in which a gem mutant burst out of the ground and caused him to lose control of his bowels. It was a mean thought and she felt bad about it… but not too bad, because now she had to tell everyone that the land had been sold. Somehow she didn't think Pearl would be very happy with that news.

She sighed and scuffed her feet along the ground as she slowly made her way back towards the warp pad. Forget Pearl,  _nobody_  was going to be happy to hear the barn was no longer an option. She hated to admit it, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that this arrangement, her living in the beach house, was turning out to be a complete failure. Pearl and Amethyst hadn't been able to concentrate on the room ceremony, Steven hadn't been able to sleep since she'd moved in and Garnet- well, it was always difficult to tell with Garnet, but she was pretty sure the fuel cell hadn't impressed her as much as she'd been hoping.

Her dragging footsteps slowed to a halt as the warp pad came closer. She didn't want to go back to the beach house. It was empty and lonely and boring and unwelcoming. Most of her belongings were all locked away, the gems didn't want her there and she was sick of spending her nights in the bathroom. All right, so she didn't have to stay there tonight, but that small victory was completely soured by the fact that she was only allowed out because Steven had fled to his father's house because he couldn't sleep in the same room as her.

That was what bothered her the most. She could put up with everything else; there was plenty of other stuff to entertain her in the house, the gems would eventually get used to having her around and it wasn't as if she hadn't been trapped in the bathroom before… but she  _hated_  that she'd forced Steven out of his home. And from what he'd said earlier, she was pretty sure it was somehow her fault he couldn't use his room in the Temple either.

She was going to have to find somewhere else to live. Lapis had talked about how she and Steven had flown around the Earth, looking for some place for her to stay, but the locations the other gem had mentioned didn't really appeal to Peridot. The city was too far away, and the country didn't have nearly enough wifi and electricity. What she needed was someplace with electricity, shelter, and nearby access to a warp pad.

Immediately, the perfect location popped into her head and without any further hesitation, she stepped onto the warp pad and materialized a moment later in the Prime Kindergarten.

Unlike Steven and the other Crystal Gems, Peridot had never really been intimidated by the Kindergarten. She was a Kindergarten technician, after all. True, the ones she'd worked in during her training had all been busy and full of life, but even though it had long since been exhausted and abandoned, she could still appreciate the work that had gone into this one.

She carefully made her way down into the valley and walked between the towering cliffs, casting a glance now and then at the uniformly perfect exit holes, until she reached the hole in the ground that lead to the control room. Without her limb enhancers, she could no longer command the platform, but that didn't hold her back, and she slid ungracefully down the slope, almost stumbling over onto her face when she reached the bottom. Once she'd steadied herself, she marched forwards, towards the darkened control room and the gem pedestal in the middle, and pressed her hand upon it, activating the screens. She'd never explored beyond the control room before, but logically, she knew there had to be more to this place and before she decided to make this place her home, she wanted to explore it a bit more. Images flickered past as she tapped on the pedestal, skimming through the Cluster data until she finally found what she was looking for: a map.

She stepped back away from the pedestal and tilted her face up so that she could see better. Apparently there was a hidden doorway located behind the power source and beyond that, a network of tunnels leading to what were presumably ancient laboratories and research stations. Peridot frowned thoughtfully up at the map, wondering if they'd been completely cleaned out when Homeworld had left this place. The prospect of living in a laboratory that had been used to create gem mutants wasn't all that appealing, especially in light of her confession to Steven. Perhaps she should just stick to the control room, after all, it had power and it shouldn't be too difficult to connect the computer to the internet. And once she'd removed the broken pillars that had housed the gem mutants, there would be plenty of space for her new furniture.

Still… she found her eyes drifting back down towards the broken power source and the door she now knew lay on the other side. It would be sensible to at least go and check things out before she fully decided to move in. After all, there could be equipment back there that she could use to better develop that faster-than-light drive, or other stuff that could be used against Homeworld. Perhaps there might even be information there that could be used to safely extract the Cluster; it was safely bubbled for now, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way forever, especially not if Yellow Diamond came looking.

Another sudden thought made her freeze rigid. What if there was information about  _corruption_ back there somewhere? Homeworld had been conducting research on fusion here, creating smaller gem mutants before they'd thrown their energy into making the Cluster. Was possible that they'd also experimented with corruption on a smaller scale too? She didn't know much about the weapon that had ended the war, but surely something like that would have had to be tested first? And if Homeworld had left the records behind, maybe they'd be able to use that information to begin working towards a cure. She knew the Crystal Gems hadn't know about this place before she'd shown up and it was highly likely that Homeworld had other secret locations here on Earth that the Crystal Gems hadn't found yet, but this was as good a place as any to begin looking.

Snapping back to attention, she tapped at the pedestal again and watched as the door slid open, revealing the dimly-lit corridor behind. Then she approached the power source, hauled herself up onto the platform it stood upon and carefully squeezed past the crystal veins.

The corridor branched off in several directions at once. It would be extremely easy for somebody to get lost, but Peridot had already memorized the layout, and turned down a tunnel that she knew led to a laboratory. Sure enough, at the end she found another closed door with a hand pad set in the wall at the side. She pressed her hand on it and stood back expectantly as the door slid open, but to her disappointment, the room inside was completely empty. Still, she knew there were several other labs down in these tunnels, so undeterred, she turned around and headed off to explore in another direction.

The next few rooms were equally disappointing. It seemed that the Diamonds had cleaned out the place before unleashing their final weapon. Perhaps even back then, even after planning to blow up the entire planet, they'd been wary of future visitors discovering exactly what they'd done. But Peridot was determined not to turn back until she'd checked everywhere, and was rewarded for her efforts in the very next room, when she opened the door and almost crashed straight into the corrupted gem on the other side.


	9. Chapter 9

"Now drink your tea and turn the cup upside-down on its saucer. When the last of the tea has drained away, give it to your partner," Ronaldo commanded.

Steven and Connie obediently drank their tea and swapped cups. "So, what do you see in mine?" Connie asked.

Steven looked down at the mushy fry bits in the bottom of the cup. They very clearly formed a sword, and he told her as much. "I believe that means you're destined to be really good at fighting with a sword," he deduced, flicking through the book in front of him. "What about mine?"

Connie held it out to him and he peered down at the diamond in the bottom of the cup. "I don't think we need any help interpreting  _this_ ," she commented.

"I'll be the judge of that." Ronaldo swept over and grabbed the cup from her, then gasped theatrically and dropped it. "Gasp! My poor boy, you have…  _the Sneople_!"

"That was obviously a diamond," Connie said with disdain. "And did you just actually say the word 'gasp'?"

"Young lady!" Ronaldo said pompously. "You clearly have no regard for the  _truth!_  Snake people, or "sneople", have infiltrated the highest levels of the Ministry For Magic." He adjusted his glasses and leaned in closer. "In fact, it's rumored that  _He-who-shall-not-be-named_ , is, in fact himself, a snake person, or "snerson"!"

"I know," Connie said flatly. "I read the books."

Thankfully, before the argument could progress any further, the bell rang. Steven grabbed his book and shoved it into his cheeseburger backpack and walked out of the tower, straight through Lars. "Hey!" Lars objected. "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry Lars," Steven apologized, hurrying on.

He jumped onto a passing staircase and stepped behind a tapestry. As he did so, Pearl ran past, holding a pair of socks aloft. "Master has given Pearl socks! Pearl is a free Pearl!"

He ignored her and carried on walking until he reached the portrait of Rose Quartz. The figure sat serenely, her eyes closed… snoring softly. Steven cleared his throat loudly. "Ahem!"

"Oh, hello Steven." His mother opened her eyes and smiled at him. "You've grown so much since I last saw you."

Steven shrugged awkwardly. "I turned someone into a zombie and almost died trying to get him home. I guess realizing how fragile life is finally made me grow up."

"Oh, is that how it works?" Rose looked surprised to hear this. "I thought humans just called that puberty."

"I suppose it was kinda similar," Steven conceded. "Anyway, can I come in?"

"What's the password?" Rose asked.

"If every pork chop were perfect," he answered at once.

Rose smiled and the portrait slid aside. "Goodbye, Steven. It was nice talking to you again."

"Bye mom." He stepped into the common room and looked around, and smiled softly when he saw Peridot sat in front of the fireplace, writing in her diary.

"-Date 9 22 2. I told Steven about the gem mutants, he took it better than I expected," she muttered as she scribbled away.

"Hi, Peridot," he interrupted, tapping her on the shoulder. She slowly turned around to face him, and the smile slid off of his face when he saw the diamond pupils in her eyes. "Wha-?"

With surprising speed, she leapt to her feet, grabbed the collar of his robes and slammed him against the wall. "I'm coming for you, Rose Quartz," she said in the voice of Yellow Diamond. "And when I-"

And then suddenly he was on his back in a dim, rocky tunnel, and there was a ringing pain at the side of his head. He winced and slowly sat up, and then froze rigid as he heard the clattering of too many feet on stone, and something further down the tunnel moved. He scrambled to his feet-

And then once again, he was on his back, but this time, he was in his bed at his father's house. He blinked up at the ceiling, feeling slightly disorientated, and then rolled over to look at time on his phone, where he discovered that he'd managed to sleep for exactly forty minutes. "Aww, come on!" he whined, thumping his pillows in frustration. He flopped back down and screwed his eyes shut. "Gotta go to sleep, gotta go to sleep… how am I supposed to do the ceremony if I don't get any sleep!?"

_I bet Peridot's happy about that._

Connie's voice echoed in his head and his eyes snapped open again when he finally figured out what had been bothering him. Peridot wasn't happy about that. Because she didn't know.

He frowned to himself, trying to figure out if it actually mattered. He hadn't told her why he wanted to talk to Garnet or why he was staying at his dad's, but he'd been gone for more than an hour now, so it was possible the other gems had mentioned it, right? True, they hadn't been around when he and Peridot had returned after their most-definitely-not-a-date, but they knew he was staying at his dad's, so maybe they'd come out of the Temple and explain things to her? "Stop obsessing over it and go back to sleep," he said aloud to himself. "Maybe not back into the freaky Harry Potter dream though."

He closed his eyes again, trying to pretend he'd convinced himself everything was fine, but it was too late. His brain refused to sit down and shut up and let him sleep again. Instead, it kept bringing up the niggling worry that if Peridot didn't know about the planned room ceremony, she might think that it was her fault he wasn't sleeping at home. Which was… technically true, actually. Surely it wouldn't bother her though? She'd just be glad to be out of the bathroom, right? "Shut up brain," he muttered to himself. "There is no problem here. Go to sleep. I'll even accept the freaky Harry Potter dream if you wanna go there again." Actually, he wouldn't mind that. Until Peridot had been possessed and he'd suddenly wound up what appeared to be the Kindergarten Of Secrets, it had been kinda fun.

He rolled over and closed his eyes, trying to imagine himself back there. Peridot-as-Ginny, writing in her cursed diary in the Gryffindor common room, this time with a lot less Yellow Diamond possession. Maybe he could just skip forward to the latter half of book six, where the kissing began. And ignore the bit after  _that_ , where Snape killed Dumbledore, where the starring roles would probably be played by his mom and Pink Diamond. He let out a small snort of laughter at that thought, but the smile quickly slid off of his face as the Kindergarten Of Secrets popped into his head again. Somehow that bit just felt extra weird, and that was taking into account the whole general weirdness of the dream in the first place.

Still. It probably wasn't important.

xxx

Peridot froze.  _It can't see me if I don't move,_  she thought irrationally as she stared up at the enormous, dark, furry creature that seemed to be made entirely out of legs and eyes, all of which seemed to be fixed upon her. Of course, she knew that wasn't true, and sure enough, it lunged towards her with a vicious snarl. She squeaked in alarm and leapt back out of the room, lunging desperately for the hand pad, but her brief delay had cost her, and before the door could close completely, several of the corrupted gem's spidery limbs shot through the gap and began forcing it back open. Peridot didn't wait to see if it would succeed, she turned and ran as fast as she could.

 _Obsidian_ , she thought, picturing the glassy black gem in the middle of the corrupted gem's face as she sprinted back towards the control room. Back on Homeworld, Obsidians were medics. Their healing powers weren't quite the same as Rose Quartz gems, but they were still effective. Well, except for this one, which was going to kill her instead, unless she managed to find some metal she could use to fight back. The panel Steven had pulled off of the computer a few years earlier blipped into her mind, and she recalled seeing it on the floor a few minutes ago, still where he'd left it. It wasn't much, but it would have to do.

She almost ran straight past the turning, which had appeared sooner than she expected, forcing her to skid to a halt and backtrack, but before she'd gone more than a few paces, she realized it was the wrong way. It wasn't one of the tunnels Homeworld had built, this one had been clawed out of the rock, presumably by the corruption itself, and she had no idea where it went or whether it was even still passable. She couldn't risk running into a possible dead end, so she spun around at once and ran back the way she'd just come, desperately hoping the monster had gone another way.

It hadn't. As soon as she shot out of the tunnel, it charged at her and lashed out with one of its many legs, sending her flying down the hallway. She slammed painfully into a wall and fell to the ground, briefly stunned. When she came to, head pounding, she made to stand up and almost fell over because for some reason, she was already on her feet. Behind her, the monster roared in triumph and began to stalk lazily towards her, taking its time, apparently sensing her weakness and she turned and stumbled away on wobbly legs.

Had it thrown her past the right turning? She pictured the map in her head and tried to work out where she was, but it was a little difficult when the whole tunnel was spinning around her. She blinked a few times and finally everything stabilized and she spotted the correct turning up ahead. Putting on a little more speed, she darted into the entrance, bounced off the wall and almost fell over again. Behind her, she heard the clattering of legs on stone increase in tempo as the monster picked up speed too.  _Stay calm,_  she told herself grimly, listening to the noises as it tried to follow her. It seemed to be having trouble changing direction, so she immediately plotted a new route back to the control room, one that was slightly longer but had a lot more turnings.

For the next few minutes, she raced along tunnels, almost making herself dizzy as she twisted and turned and backtracked upon herself, but her plan seemed to be working and she could hear the sounds of the corruption fading into the distance. And then finally, she spotted the sickly green glow of the control room up ahead and her heart soared with relief. Soon she'd be out of here, and she could go back to the house and tell the Crystal Gems-

Without warning, something wrapped around her ankles and yanked tight, and she hit the ground with a  _whump_  that knocked all the air out of her. Her chin hit the floor and she almost bit her tongue in half. For a split second she lay there, disorientated, wondering what had just happened, then she felt herself being dragged backwards. She managed to roll over and spotted what appeared to be sticky cords wrapped around her ankles. And further down the tunnel stood the corrupted gem, reeling the cord into its abdomen like a fisherman with a particularly tasty catch. It had been toying with her, she realized with dismay, it had known where she was headed all along and taken a different route to catch up and ensnare her. And as soon as it was close enough, it would probably bite her head off with its razor-sharp teeth.

She pawed at the ground, trying to find something to grab hold of or fight back with, but there was nothing but grit and dust beneath her fingertips. Lots of grit. It was a good thing she was wearing jeans, she randomly thought, then realized how silly it was to be concerned about road rash when she was about to die-

 _Jeans!_ They weren't part of her light projected body! Immediately she kicked off her shoes, reached down and unbuttoned her fly and struggled out her jeans, holding onto the waistband for as long as possible. At the last moment, she let go, and the monster fell backwards, and before it could recover, she was off again. The power source appeared up ahead, and without altering her speed, she let herself drop to the ground and skidded beneath the low-hanging vein before dropping the few feet to the ground, where she landed on her ass with a painful thump. But there was no time to stop and lick her wounds, she could hear the corruption's roars of frustration getting louder behind her. Thankfully, the panel was just a short distance away, and using her metal powers, she floated it over towards her as she struggled back to her feet, and half-climbed, half-fell onto it. Then, holding on as tightly as she could, she flew out of the control room and back up to the slope, just as the power source exploded behind her.

She shot out of the tunnel like a rocket and almost crashed into a cliff, but managed to put the brakes on just in time, and floated back down to ground level where she immediately hid behind a couple of large rocks. She quickly scanned the floor of the Kindergarten in the twilight until she spotted the broken injector drill that had fallen on her a few years previously, then she settled down and waited.

She didn't have to wait for long. Only a few seconds later, the long legs of the corrupted gem poked out of the hole in the ground and scrabbled around for purchase. As soon as it was securely anchored, the bloated body rose up out of the ground, and it looked around with its many eyes for some sign of her.

" _Here's_  a sign, you overgrown tarantula!" she hissed under her breath. And before it could react, the broken legs of the injector whizzed through the air and impaled it in three different places. It let out an unearthly howl, and exploded into black smoke. When the smoke cleared, Peridot peeped out of her hiding place, just to make sure it really had been defeated, and then limped forward and bubbled it. "Some medic  _you_ are," she grumbled, and made to tap the top. Then she paused. Where on Earth would the bubble even go? The beach house didn't feel much like home, so she couldn't be sure it would actually safely arrive there and not on the hillside where the barn had been. For a brief moment she entertained the thought of builders accidentally popping the bubble and running away screaming and demanding their money back from Andy, but the far more sensible part of her pointed out that Steven might not be very happy with her if she deliberately sicced a corrupted gem upon his uncle, so she sighed, gingerly held the bubble and began limping slowly towards the warp pad.

She was just a few steps away when the warp pad suddenly lit up, and when the light faded, she was surprised to see Steven standing there. "Peridot! Are you all right!?"

"What are you doing here?" she asked, ignoring his, quite frankly, rather stupid question. "You're supposed to be asleep."

"I had a weird dream where I was suddenly in a tunnel in the Kindergarten," he rapidly explained. "It was bothering me and I decided to come and check on you and you weren't at the house and I thought maybe you might be here."

"What?" Peridot said blankly, not understanding a word he was saying. Then, deciding it didn't really matter, she shook her head and immediately wished she hadn't. "Ow."

Steven was by her side at once. "What happened?" he asked, his eyes flickering down to the bubble in her hands. "Why are you even here?"

"Corrupted gem," Peridot said woodenly, holding out the bubble so he could see it more closely. "I… I don't know where it'll go."

"Let me." He took the bubble and tapped it, and watched as it vanished. "Come on, we should go back too." He took a step back towards the warp pad and then paused as she stumbled along slowly beside him. "Do you need any help?"

"Please," she admitted, and gratefully leant against him as he swept her up into his arms and strode the few paces to the warp pad, eager to leave the oppressive site. Glancing around in the darkness, Peridot had to admit she was beginning to see what the others found so creepy about it.

As soon as they materialized back in the beach house, Steven walked over to the sofa and gently put her down. "Where does it hurt?"

Peridot couldn't help smiling as déjà vu washed over her. Hadn't they just had this conversation a few days ago? "Everywhere," she said again. "I suppose I should've mentioned that before, we could've warped straight to your mothers fountain."

"Um, yeah." Steven cleared his throat self-consciously and sat down next to her. "Actually, I have an idea," he said, beginning to blush. "Um, a couple of years ago, I let Connie drink from my juice carton, and it healed her eyes, so I was thinking…" He blushed harder. "Can I kiss you?"

"What?" Peridot stared back at him with wide, startled eyes. That was a question she'd never imagined him asking. OK, that was a lie, that was a question she always imagined him asking, she just never imagined him asking it anywhere other than in her deepest fantasies. Just how hard  _had_  she hit her head? She reached up and touched the side of her head and winced at the sickly jolt of pain that shot through her. "Ow."

"It was the most pleasant way I could think of to say 'may I spit in your mouth'", Steven quickly backpeddled. "Ingesting it seems to work differently, so I thought…"

"Oh." She tried not to look as disappointed as she felt, reminding herself that he was still offering to kiss her. "Then yes, you may kiss me."

"OK!" Steven squeaked. He licked his lips and took a deep breath to steady his nerves, then gently cupped her face and leaned forward. Her eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted and choirs of angels sang in his head because  _holy shit this is actually happening, I'm really going to kiss Peridot!_  And her lips were softer and sweeter than he could've ever possibly dreamed and he knew at once that he'd completely fallen for her.

Meanwhile, Peridot shoved the fact that he was only doing it to heal her back into the far recesses of her mind so that she could concentrate on memorizing every detail to cheer herself up with when she was alone again. Which, knowing her luck, would be in twenty seconds time when he noticed it had worked and left to go back to his father's house again.

Finally, reluctantly, Steven broke the kiss and sat back, noting with satisfaction that the cuts and bruises on her body had healed. "There. All bet-" He stopped abruptly when a tear rolled down her cheek. "Peridot?"

"What?" she snapped, a little more harshly than she'd intended.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes. Fine. Never better." She quickly wiped her face and folded her arms defensively. "You can go away again now."

Steven sighed, guessing at once what was bothering her. "I forgot to tell you," he said quietly. "The gems agreed to try the room ceremony again tomorrow morning, and I wanted to stay at my dads so I could be sure I'd get a good night's sleep so it would work."

"Oh." Peridot bit her lip, suddenly feeling very silly. "I-I see. Then um, then you really should go. I'm sorry to have disturbed you."

"It wasn't your fault," he tried to reassure her. "I think I must have ended up in your body for a moment when you hit your head, and it woke me up."

"Sorry," Peridot said again, but Steven was already shaking his head.

"It's not your fault I lost control of my dream powers," he said firmly. Then he paused. "But why were you even in the Kindergarten in the first place?"

Peridot flushed and turned away. "You really want to know?"

"Uh-huh," he said at once.

"I thought… maybe I could live there," she admitted.

"What!?" Steven jumped to his feet, scandalized. "But you can't! It's dangerous and creepy and-"

"I know!" Peridot interrupted. "But we have to face facts, Steven, this isn't working!" She jumped up as well and waved around at the interior of the beach house. "There simply isn't space for both of us here!"

"The ceremony-" Steven began again.

"Might not work," Peridot finished. "You, Amethyst  _and_  Pearl couldn't concentrate last time, what are the odds that all three of you will be able to manage it  _this_  time? And what happens then? Are we going to keep storing my possessions in the Temple, where I can't get to then? Am I going to keep living in your bathroom until you finally pass out from complete exhaustion!?" She shook her head vehemently. "Andy's already sold the land the barn was on, so I can't go back there. The Kindergarten was the next best place. It has space enough for  _all_  my shoes," she added sarcastically.

"But you can't go!" Steven protested wildly. "You just got here! You're a Crystal Gem, you  _should_  be here!"

Peridot's eyes flickered over to the note, still hung from the fridge door, and she scowled. "I'm an inconvenience," she corrected him. "The Crystal Gems would be happier if I wasn't here."

" _I_ wouldn't," he said at once.

"You'd certainly sleep better," she pointed out.

"I don't care!" He lunged forward and gripped her hands desperately. "Please, don't go. I love you!"

Peridot opened her mouth, but no words came out. She had been stunned into silence. She closed her mouth, licked her lips and tried again. "I'm sorry, I must have hit my head harder than I thought-"

"I love you," Steven said again.

"Yes. That's what I thought you said." Her legs suddenly felt very unsteady and she sat down heavily on the sofa again, glancing down to see if perhaps her various leg injuries had magically returned, and belatedly noticed that she wasn't wearing any pants. Of course, she'd abandoned them back in the tunnel. She'd find time to be embarrassed about that later, right now she was too busy trying to think clearly. It wasn't the first time he'd said he loved her, of course, but last time, they'd been convinced they were about to die and he wanted her to know in the quickest way possible that he cared about her and didn't blame her. There was no reason for him to say it  _now_. So why was he saying it?

"Because it's true." She hadn't even realized she'd asked the question aloud. "I love you," he said once more.

"Stop saying that," she whispered as it began to dawn on her that he really meant it, and quite possibly not in a platonic way either, which was really interfering with her ability to think rationally.

"I can't, I think I'm stuck." Steven sat down next to her and laughed a little hysterically. "I love you. I can't stop thinking about you. You're brave and smart and curious, and I've loved hanging out with you these past few days, seeing you try new things and coming up with ways to help the team." His laughter quickly died away and he bit his lip and looked hopefully at her, but she seemed to be frozen and he felt his hopes rapidly slipping away. "I-I'm sorry, but I had to tell you. If you just wanna be friends, that's fine, I accept that, and if you want to leave, that's fine too-"

"I love you too," Peridot interrupted. This time it was Steven's turn to freeze. He gulped and opened and shut his mouth a few times, then tried to discreetly pinch his arm, and Peridot laughed. "I love you, Steven," she said again, and suddenly understood why he'd kept repeating it. It just felt so  _good_ to finally say the words aloud, and she laughed again, full of joy. "I love you!"

The words finally sunk in, and Steven's eyes lit up with delight. He leaned over and hugged her tightly, his own laughter joining hers. Then he kissed her again, and this time she felt nothing but happiness. "Does that mean you'll stay and give the room ceremony another try?" he asked when they broke apart.

All at once, Peridot felt her good mood beginning to fade away. "Yes… but what if it fails again?" She frowned a little as she spoke. "I don't  _want_  to go, but you have to admit, this situation is unsustainable."

"If it fails, we'll try again," Steven said simply. "And again and again and as many times as it takes to make you a room-" He suddenly paused, mid-speech, and flailed his hands as inspiration struck. "Oh!  _Oh!_  I've got it!" He leapt to his feet and gestured wildly over at the far wall. "If we can't make you a room in the  _Temple,_  we'll make you a room in the  _house!_ "

Peridot stared at the wall as well, and a slow smile spread over her face. "It's the perfect solution."

"I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner." Steven narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Possibly because of the sleep deprivation."

"Speaking of which…" Peridot stepped in front of him and folded her arms sternly. "You really should return to your father's house and go back to bed."

"Awww." Steven pouted. "I'd much rather stay here and kiss you instead." But he had to admit, she was right. He hadn't thought to leave a note or anything for his dad, and now the adrenaline was wearing off, he was starting to feel the exhaustion creeping up on him again, and as Peridot stretched up on tiptoe to meet his lips, he had to clench his jaw so he wouldn't yawn in her face. "All right, I'll go. And I'll be back first thing in the morning," he promised.

"And… and what happens then?" she asked tentatively.

He tilted his head in confusion. "The… room ceremony? Or building one, whichever."

Peridot shook her head. "No, I meant… what happens with us?"

"Oh." Steven thought for a moment, but his mind had gone blank. Pretty much every single romance film or novel he'd seen or read ended when the couple got together, and they lived happily ever after offscreen. "I don't know," he admitted. "I guess we'll find out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we will find out, because I have sequels planned! A couple of one-shots and one or two longer, plottier ones, and I hope you'll stick around to find out what's in store for the happy couple.


End file.
